


Ride Out

by taylorswift81



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Fast and Furious AU, Sons of Anarchy AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-22
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-04-22 21:59:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 43,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4852004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taylorswift81/pseuds/taylorswift81
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver Queen meets Felicity Smoak, daughter of Damien Darhk, and member of the Green Riders, in less than favorable circumstances, and immediately finds himself drawn towards Felicity, and her life. When the car club starts taking on more than they can handle, will Felicity be able to save the club, herself, and Oliver?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> SO. I am not abandoning my other fic, I just realllllly needed to start this. I've been watching Sons of Anarchy (I'm on season 4, but I know most of what happens in the rest of the seasons. No spoilers though), and it literally owns my ass. That, coupled with the fact that Fast and Furious is my shit, spawned this crossover/AU fic. There's going to be elements of both, but it's going to be something all of its own. This is just a set up chapter, and to gauge interest, but let me know what you guys think and if you're interested in the rest of the story!

“Goddamn son of a bitch!” Oliver cringed as the door slammed and the petite blonde whirled towards him with a look that could kill. Her hair was falling out of the French braid she had it in, and Oliver was trying to ignore how gorgeous she was, and how distracting her red painted lips were, even if they were mumbling obscenities about him while she crouched down to examine the scratches on her bumper.

“Dude, say something.” Tommy mumbled from the passenger side of the car, leaning out of the open window to gawk at the girl. She stood, and crossed her arms under her chest, and Oliver had to look up quickly, fearing what would happen to his manhood if she caught him staring at her cleavage. Oliver found it almost laughable that out of everyone he had ever met, no one had scared him more than this blonde, who was easily half a foot shorter than him, and she had done it with only a look.

“I-uh, I’m sorry?” He stuttered, and cursed himself when it sounded like a question, because the girl’s eyebrow hiked up and he took an involuntary step backwards. “I really am, I wasn’t paying attention, I thought I had more room.” He had his hands up to signal surrender when the girl stepped forward, leaning around him to get a look at his car. She hadn’t gotten a chance to really look at it, since he had cut across 3 lanes of traffic before scratching her back bumper, and she had been far more concerned with the fate of her car than whatever piece of shit he was driving.

“What the fuck!” she exclaimed, gesturing to his car with a pained look on her face, as she walked circles around it, examining every inch. Tommy glanced at Oliver questioningly, and when she came to a standstill in front of Oliver, he carefully rearranged his features into something less inquisitive. “You realize what car this is, right?” She asked, pointing to the front badge of the car with force, and Oliver almost rolled his eyes.

“Yes, I know what kind of car this is.” He immediately regretted the words when she narrowed her eyes, stalking around him to lean into the passenger side window, immediately smoothing her features into a sultry smile.

“Hey, handsome.” She purred, shifting forward so that Tommy’s eyes were immediately drawn to her chest, which he was unashamedly staring at, and Oliver knew that she had manipulated people like this before. He was terrified. “Pop the hood for me?” She asked, running her fingers along Tommy’s cheek, who nodded excitedly, leaning over to press the button on Oliver’s side of the car. Oliver raised his hands in a ‘what the fuck’ gesture, but Tommy only shrugged, watching through the windshield as she propped the hood open and immediately started looking around.

“What are you do-holy shit is that a gun?!” He asked, taking a step backwards and she rolled her eyes, and Oliver ignored the weird feeling it gave him in his stomach when she did, leaning further into the car. Her sweater had ridden up on the side, revealing a gun tucked into a holster, strapped around her body.

“Keep your panties on. I work on cars for a living. This is my dream car, and seeing as you hit my baby with it, I feel I have to right to see what kind of engine you have. You have the V10, by the way. Great engine. Not the best gas mileage, but it’s an Audi R8, so who really gives a shit. You’ve got about a hundred more horsepower than I do, but you can barely drive her on the highway, so I doubt you could race her without killing yourself. My car’s a Camaro, by the way. She’s a beauty. And to answer your other question, yes, it’s a gun. I’m a small, fragile woman.” She said with a grin at him, and Oliver tried to tell his dick to knock it off, because she was not small and fragile, and it should not be attractive that she carries a firearm. “I’ll tell you what.” She said as she closed his car back up, leaning against the left end of her car, crossing her legs in front of her. “You let me drive your car tomorrow, and I’ll forget about the fact that you scratched my paint job. Yeah?”

“Deal.” Tommy called from behind him, and Oliver cast him a glance, but before he could speak, Tommy was telling the girl to program Oliver’s number in her phone, and he heard a chirp when his phone went off with a new text message.

“Goodbye, boys.” She climbed into her car, folding her long legs neatly underneath the steering wheel, and when she started her car, she revved the engine, a true smile lighting up her face as she listened to her exhaust. Oliver had to admit that even knowing nothing about cars, her car was a beautiful thing to behold. It was a solid matte black, with all of the car badges blacked out, her headlights the only bright thing about her car. He knew from seeing other Camaros on the street that she had done something to her exhaust to make it sound the way it did, and it showed that she prided herself on her car. As she went to pull away, Oliver called out to her, resting his hands on her open window frame.

“What’s your name?” He asked, breath hitching in his throat at their sudden proximity. Her eyes were the prettiest blue he had ever seen, and he was thinking that he could write poems on them, if he did such a thing.

“Felicity. Felicity Smoak.” She responded, and she was glancing at his lips as she did so, and her voice sounded shaky, but it was over almost before it began as she winked at him before pulling away, tires squealing as she burned out.

“Oh, holy shit, Ollie. You’re so fucked.” Tommy cackled as Oliver climbed back into the car, staring at the steering wheel, frozen.

“I hit Damien Darhk’s daughter’s car.” He whimpered, appalled, as he slowly pulled back onto the highway, making sure he had enough room.

With Starling being the quant town that it was, everyone tended to know almost everyone, but everyone knew about Damien Darhk and the Green Riders. By day, Darhk owned a garage on the edge of town with his family; his wife Donna and his daughter, Felicity. By night, everyone was part of an underground street racing ring, which also took part in drug deals, gun running, and other illegal businesses. Everyone knew, but now one questioned anything, because in turn, the Riders kept the town safe. Their drugs did not go into Starling, their guns stayed on the outskirts, and anyone who crossed them ended up dead. It was known that Police Chief Quentin Lance was in their pocket, and it was a given that the rest of the force was too.

Everyone had, at one point, questioned how good the Riders really were, and if their benefit to the town outweighed the fact that they were a lawless good, above everyone else, but no one dared voice that opinion out loud. Felicity, as the youngest person in the Riders, was heavily protected at most times. She had been a year or two underneath Tommy and Oliver in high school, but she had always had a fellow Rider with her or waiting outside. Most of the time, it was that douche Roy Harper, and Oliver dreamed about kicking his ass, but realistically, he knew that Harper could beat him with one arm tied behind his back.

“You better be on your best behavior tomorrow, if she tells her Daddy that you did something wrong, you’re screwed you know that right?” Tommy said, and Oliver felt that he was entirely too gleeful about Oliver potentially dying because he put his foot in his mouth.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Oliver grumbled, pointing his car to home, an anxiety in his stomach about seeing her again, but he also couldn’t wait. There was something about her being able to intimidate him that intrigued him, and she had so much confidence and poise that it was refreshing. The girls Oliver went after usually need reassurances from him, and he had a feeling that Felicity would sooner punch him than ask him to tell her that she’s pretty.

“You’ll be fine, dude. Just don’t stare at her tits, or hit her car again. She’ll pull that gun on you with no problems.”

“I guess we’ll see how it goes.” He whispered, and he stayed lost in his thoughts the whole way home, until he saw the message with Felicity’s number. She had only sent her name, but as Oliver saved the number in his phone, he couldn’t keep himself from responding.

_**Oliver** : You’re not going to shoot me tomorrow are you?_

_**Felicity** : Depends. Are you going to do something worse to my car? That was a custom paint job._

_**Oliver** : I won’t even touch your car. Scout’s honor._

_**Felicity** : I won’t shoot you. Besides, your family would probably sue me. Queen, huh? Did daddy buy you that car?_

_**Oliver** : …no_

_**Felicity** : Liar!_

_**Oliver** : I work._

_**Felicity** : Sure you do, sweetie. Meet me at the edge of town, by the garage tomorrow. You can pick me up. Make sure your tank is full._

_**Oliver** : Time?_

_**Felicity** : Morning. Early. 7 good?_

Oliver groaned, because he had fully intended on getting hammered tonight and finding some blonde to lay that may or may not resemble Felicity, because he needed to get whatever it was about her out of his system, because, frankly, she terrified him, and the thought of her knowing that he had a constant boner for her was enough to make him want to go to church and pray for himself.

_**Oliver** : 7 is great._

Felicity didn’t respond after that, and Oliver had to force himself to put his phone on the other side of the room to stop him from constantly checking for a new message from her. It wasn’t that he was obsessed with her, because he wasn’t; he was Oliver Queen and he did not obsess over women, but he couldn’t stop his thoughts from straying back to her. He could tell, even just from the time that they’d spent together, that she was strong, and stubborn, and would do anything to get what she wanted. She knew how to manipulate people, and instead of throwing him off, it made Oliver want her more. Oliver was no stranger to manipulation; his father had taught it to him from an early age, and he had never questioned if it was right or wrong. He knew that the world didn’t always work how people wanted it to, and sometimes you had to stoop to low levels to get what you wanted.

_**Tommy** : Hey man, you coming out?_

_**Oliver** : Nah, I can’t. I’m supposed to meet Felicity at 7 in the am tomorrow._

_**Tommy** : Dude, you’re whipped already. LOL_

Oliver rolled his eyes, not deigning to respond, and instead he stood up and strolled to the bathroom, stripping his clothes as he did. He showered, and shaved, and stood in a towel in front of his closet for half an hour, trying to figure out what he was going to wear to meet Felicity tomorrow, and he could almost hear Tommy laughing about it, and he vowed to never let Tommy know how in deep he was already. Part of Oliver wondered if it was just the idea of the unattainable that drew him in, because there was no way he would ever get in with Felicity Smoak, but he would go down trying. As he lay down in bed that night, his last thought was of blonde hair, blue eyes, and a pair of red lips pressed against his own.


	2. Chapter 2

“Hey, there’s someone here to see you.” Felicity glanced up from her computer, taking a second to pull herself back into reality and out of the inventory order she was doing, music blaring in the background. Her mother was usually in charge of orders and paperwork, but Felicity needed to buy the things to fix the scratches on her bumper. She hadn’t told anyone about Oliver, and she didn’t plan to. She wanted to keep things simple, and easy, and just have a day of driving the most beautiful car she had ever seen.

“There’s no one out there to harass him, is there?” Felicity asked, hurriedly throwing her hair into a bun as she yanked her shoes back on and breezed past John, the person who had come in to let her know Oliver was there. Felicity had known John for as long as she could remember, and despite him being 12 years older than her, they were as close as her and Roy, who was the same age as her. John was the brother that Felicity had never had, and there were few people who knew her as well as he did. John was quiet and reserved where Felicity was loud and rambunctious, and she found that at the end of the day, there was no one better to talk to about her life.

“No, Harper isn’t in yet and your dad’s focused on other things but I would get him out of here before someone see’s that it’s Queen.” Felicity sighed, grabbing her bag from where it hung by the door and throwing it over her shoulder before heading out to Oliver, who had parked right outside the garage. He was leaning against his car in a dark Henley that emphasized his chest, jeans that she just knew would make his ass look glorious, completely based on what she had seen yesterday because she wasn’t _blind,_ and everyone with eyes knew how attractive Oliver Queen was, even if he was a spoiled brat. He smiled at her as she walked up, shamelessly looking up and down her body before catching himself and looking away quickly, something that made Felicity smirk. She could tell that Oliver was used to girls that threw themselves at his feet, not girls who scared and intimidated him.

“Keys.” She said with a smile, holding her hand palm up in front of her as she came to a stop in front of Oliver, realizing too late that she was a lot closer than she meant to be, with her hand only an inch from his chest. Oliver dropped the keys in her palm without hesitation, standing up from where he had been leaning against his car, putting him even closer to Felicity. She forced herself to stand her ground, pinning Oliver with her eyes as he stared down at her, cheeks flushed red. They stood there for longer than either of them meant to, and only moved when someone honked at them as they drove past, parking in the side parking lot.  “Oh, God, get in the car right now.” Felicity told Oliver, shoving him to the passenger side as she threw herself into the driver’s seat, making a face when her feet couldn’t even touch the pedals.

“How fucking tall are you?” She mumbled, moving the seat forward while keeping an eye on the red Mustang in her rear view mirror. Roy climbed out of the car, casting a questioning glance between the R8 and Diggle, who Felicity hadn’t realized was still watching from the doorway. She pealed the car out of the lot as Oliver buckled himself in, relaxing into the passenger seat.

“Who was in the Mustang?” Oliver asked, reaching over to turn the radio on so that there was quiet music playing in the background. Oliver couldn’t be in a car without music playing, which drove his mother crazy, but he could tell by the way Felicity relaxed that she was the same way.

“Roy. I love him, and he’s like my younger brother, but he hates you. I think mostly because you were a stuck-up rich douche in high school.” Oliver flushed, his hand coming up to idly scratch at the back of his neck while Felicity grinned, driving them further out of town.

“I was that bad?” Oliver asked, rubbing his thumb over his fingers, unable to keep himself from fidgeting. Felicity made him nervous, because she was headstrong and she gave off this air of confidence without even trying, and she made Oliver’s chest do weird things when she smiled, or laughed, and she looked ridiculously amazing in jeans and an oversized sweater, hanging off of one shoulder, with her lips painted that same shade of red from the day before. She made him feel things he didn’t understand, and he had only known her for less than 24 hours.

“You and Tommy were both pretty bad. I didn’t really know either of you, because we so didn’t run in the same crowd, and I mean, you were seniors when I was a freshman, but you were practically royalty, so I heard enough. You’re not as bad as I pictured you to be.” Oliver snorted, not sure how he should feel about the things that Felicity had no doubt heard. The person he was in high school was vastly different than the person he was today. He had struggled to get past that when he graduated and spent the first two years dropping out of every college he got into, but when his father had died in a car accident, he had had to grow up. He wasn’t perfect, and he still spent too many nights going out and getting drunk with Tommy, but he was on his way to getting a business degree to one day take over Queen Consolidated.

“Where are we going? If I can ask.”

“We’re going to a track. It’s about an hour away, we use it for races sometimes.” She said, pushing the car faster on the two lane road, speeding past a car going well under the speed limit. She cast a glance over at Oliver, who had a sort of constipated look on his face like he wanted to ask Felicity questions but didn’t know if he should. She sighed, knowing that there was no way they would get through the day without some questions being asked, and if she was completely honest with herself, she almost didn’t mind.  “Just ask, Oliver.”

“What? I don’t have any questions to ask.” He responded, too quickly to be casual, and she could tell by the way that he cringed that he knew it.

“You’re a horrible liar.” She told him, and she could see in her peripheral that he was chewing his lip, debating, before he finally blurted a question out.

“Are you really part of an underground street racing ring?”

“Yes. We race the other clubs, race the other chapters of the Green Riders. It’s usually all in good fun, but sometimes it’s a reminder of who the top dog is.” Oliver nodded, thinking over Felicity’s words as he looked around, thinking about all the things he wanted to know, and trying to come up with an order to ask them in.

“Why is your last name different than your dads?”

“It’s because he’s not technically my dad. My dad died right after I was born, and Damien was my dad’s best friend, so he took my mom and me in, and they fell in love. He’s been my dad in every way that counts.”

“Okay. Ever been arrested?” Felicity laughed, leaning forward against the steering wheel as she did so, a smile lingering on her face.

“We’ve all been arrested at least once. It’s almost a weekly occurrence for some of us.”

“Are you packing right now?” Felicity laughed again, the bubbling sound filling the car, causing Oliver’s stomach to do a weird dancing thing that made him feel vaguely nauseated.

“Yes, Oliver, I have a gun. It’s in my bag. I don’t really go anywhere without one. You make a lot of enemies doing what I do, I’d rather not be caught empty handed.” Oliver figured that knowing Felicity carried a gun at any given point should vaguely scare him but he simply nodded, casting around for another question to ask.

“Have you ever killed anyone?”

The lighthearted mood in the car died immediately, and Felicity sighed, pulling her lower lip between her teeth, bright white against startling red. Felicity weighed her options, tapping her thumbs against the emblem on the steering wheel, the intertwined circles providing her something else to focus on. She would be stupid to try and tell herself that there wasn’t a part of her that was attracted to Oliver. He was completely different from everyone that she knew, totally uninvolved in what she called her ‘other life’. He didn’t know his ass from his elbow when it came to cars, and she felt that there wasn’t a problem that he wouldn’t try and solve using money, but he made her laugh, easily, and he had a way of looking at her that made her chest ache, because he looked at her with reverence and a sort of respect that wasn’t given just because she was Damien Darhk’s daughter, but her life was dangerous. What she did for a living got people killed, and with everything the club had been getting into lately, she didn’t want Oliver anywhere near it. He was better off far away from her, and anything to do with her.

“Yes.” She responded, finally, her voice quiet and light. Oliver hesistated for a minute, carefully digesting her answer and nodding, shifting again in his seat.

“Okay.” Felicity did a double take, mouth dropping open in surprise as Oliver simply looked back at her, unaffected.

“Okay? That’s it?”

“Yep.” He replied, popping the p with a smile, carefully picking up Felicity’s bag from where she had put it in the floorwell on his side. “What’s in here?” He asked opening it cautiously as if expecting something to jump out of him. Felicity laughed, a short surprised laugh as she let him root through the bag, picking up things like lipstick, chapstick, a book she had thrown in there for any chance she got to read.

“Pride and Prejudice? Really? Gun-toting Felicity Smoak reads P & P in her spare time? Does Mr. Darcy make your heart flutter?” Oliver mumbled, sticking his arm into the bag again as Felicity smacked his shoulder, making a noise of protest.

“Pride and Prejudice is a national treasure, Oliver.”

“Yeah, a national treasure of bullshit.”

“Have you ever even read it?”

“Nope.” He said, pulling Felicity’s gun out of the bag with two fingers, holding it in front of him like he was afraid it would bite him. Felicity rolled her eyes, snatching the gun from his hand and sticking it in the driver side door storage. “You have a lot of shit in here, Felicity.” Oliver told her, putting all of her things back where he had found them, making sure that anything that was in a pocket was put back in that pocket. “I have another question.”

“Go ahead.”

“Do you have a boyfriend? Or girlfriend, I don’t judge.” Felicity couldn’t help the smile on her face, even though she knew that Oliver wasn’t going to be happy with her response.

“No, I don’t. And I won’t. The life I lead, the things I do, they’re dangerous and I won’t bring someone into that.” Oliver pouted, momentarily, before immediately rearranging his features into something blank and casual. Felicity slowed and turned left onto a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, gently navigating around potholes, her hands steady and sure on the wheel. When she made it onto the track, a twisting paved road carved through the trees, she immediately stopped, gave Oliver a devilish smile, and then she slammed onto the gas, moving through gears with a practiced ease. She quickly pushed the car past 100 miles per hour, drifting corners with a laugh as Oliver held onto his seat, a mild panic taking over him. She drove like a maniac but she did it well, always keeping them safely on the track, never pushing the car too far. She was a natural, and she looked happier than she had all day as she listened to the engine.

In ten minutes they were back to where they started, and Felicity drifted to a gentle stop, turning to face Oliver.

“That. Was. Awesome!” She squealed, unbuckling to step out and take a look at the car as Oliver followed her. “God, this car looks even more badass with all the road dust on it. Ugh. What a beauty.” Felicity said, kneeling down to snap a picture of the car on her phone. She bounded over to Oliver to give him a hug, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as she thanked him for letting her drive his car. Oliver wrapped his arms around her waist without even thinking, and when she leaned back to detangle herself from his arms, she froze. His hands were locked together, resting against her lower back, and her hands slid to his shoulders of their own accord, and she could feel the muscles move as he moved his hands to either side of her waist, fingers tightening on her sweater. “We should go.” She whispered, maneuvering herself out of Oliver’s grasp and into the passenger seat of the car, letting out a shaky breath as Oliver climbed into the driver’s side, readjusting the seat before heading back the way they had come, both too distracted by their thoughts to talk.

“Just drop me off at the garage.” Felicity said finally, when they had made it back to Starling. Oliver nodded, pulling in and shutting the car off, glancing at Felicity.

“What if I don’t want to stay away from you?” he asked, stopping her from leaving with a hand on her wrist. She sighed, turning back to Oliver with a sad look in her eyes.

“You need to. I can’t be responsible for something happening to you. You’re better off far away from me, okay? So you’re going to pull out this parking lot, and you’re not going to look back, and you’ll go find some model to sleep with.” She said quietly, slinging her bag over her shoulder as she climbed out of the car and walked into the garage, where the same man that had watched them earlier stood. He cast Oliver a sad glance, nodding his head before he closed the door, taking away Oliver’s last view of Felicity.

 

* * *

 

 

“Hey man, how’d it go with Felicity?” Tommy asked when Oliver walked into the apartment that they shared. It was more of a loft, with all of the newest technologies, a bar stocked with any kind of liquor they could possibly want and ridiculously expensive furniture. Oliver imagined that Felicity would scoff if she would see it, making some sort of comment about how spoiled Oliver was, and she was right. “You alright, Ollie? You look depressed.” Tommy commented, sitting up straight and turning the TV off.

“Felicity told me to stay away from her.” He grumbled, dropping onto the couch next to Tommy and avoiding eye contact. He and Tommy, for years, had been the same way when it came to women, until Laurel had managed to get Tommy to settle down. He still went out and partied and did everything that he and Oliver had always done, except sleep with anyone they could. Oliver didn’t begrudge Tommy for that at all, because Oliver saw how happy Tommy always was with Laurel, who was a sweet girl.

“What did you do to deserve that?”

“She says that she’s dangerous, that her life could get me killed and she doesn’t want that to happen to me.”

“Ahhhhh. Well, you can either do as she says, which might be a good idea seeing as she has a gun and I’m absolutely certain she knows how to use it, or you can keep fighting for her, which might eventually wear her down. You should talk to Laurel man, her dad works with the club, right? I’m sure Laurel’s run into her at some point. She might have some information that could be useful.”

Oliver gaped at Tommy, openmouthed, completely surprised at how much thought Tommy had put into the situation already. Tommy smirked, like he knew what Oliver was thinking, and he shrugged, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He shot off a text to Laurel, making sure that she knew he was asking for Oliver, before he clapped Oliver on the shoulder with a smile.

“I could tell yesterday that you were crazy into her. It was like an instant connection between the two of you, and I’ve seen you with a lot of girls but I’ve never seen that. Asking Laurel was plan B, which I made just in case plan A didn’t go so well. Plan A was her falling for you charming personality, which I would say she has, since she doesn’t want you to get hurt. It’s all gonna work out, man, I have your back.”

Oliver nodded, caught in a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions, unsure of which one to handle first. Tommy decided for him, grabbing a bottle of Jack from the bar and two glasses, coming back to the couch and turning the TV on, putting on the Blue Jays game he knew Oliver had been wanting to watch, and spending the rest of the day on the couch with his best friend as they planned out how to make things between Oliver and Felicity work out.

In the end, it turned out that Laurel knew just enough about Felicity to help them plan casual run ins. Tommy’s logic revolved around wearing her down slowly. If she found herself always around Oliver, she might warm up to the idea of being with Oliver. Oliver himself found it to be a long shot, because he had a feeling that Felicity would end up being the most stubborn person he had ever met, but he couldn’t bring himself to just give up.

He didn’t understand any of his feelings, and he found that he couldn’t figure out how to tell Tommy how he felt either. It was nice that Tommy had known everything without needing to be told, because Oliver didn’t think that he would even know where to begin. All of his thoughts drifted back to Felicity, wondering what she was doing, or where she was, wondering what she would say about the flashy car he passed on the street the other day. He was obsessed, and part of him knew that it was unhealthy, because at this point in time she wanted nothing to do with him, but he just had to set things into motion. He had to find a way to be with Felicity, because there had to be a reason why he was this way; there had to be a reason why she took over his every waking thought.

Oliver Queen was going to win over Felicity Smoak if it was the last thing he did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 2! I loved the comments you guys left on the last chapter, they definitely fueled me to write this chapter. Let me know what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

Felicity rarely got a day off, and when she did, she preferred to hide from the world.  She spent so much time around the club, and around clients that came to the garage that she rarely ever had time for herself. She wanted time to separate; to retreat into her mind and enjoy the simpler things in life. Arrow’s Cafe, a hole-in-the-wall coffee shop on a side street in Starling was her favorite place in the world. Every chair was plush and comfortable, mismatched in the perfect way. The tables were eclectic, the walls painted a warm, inviting red. Christmas lights twinkled around picture frames and hand painted menus with every crazy coffee drink the baristas could come up with. Felicity had stumbled into Arrow’s on accident in high school, trying to get out of the rain, and it was the best accident she’d ever had. She felt at home; the baristas knew her name and order for every season, and they would give her discounts since she spent the entire day in her favorite spot in the corner, curled up with a book.

She had set herself up that morning with an iced caramel macchiato, refusing to accept that the brisk winds of fall were starting to set in. Winter was her least favorite season, for reasons she couldn’t really explain. She had always found that winter was a time for death, and the cold seemed to seep into her bones and leech all of the happiness out of her. She was deep into a reread of Pride and Prejudice, mildly irritated that her mind kept wandering off to thoughts of Oliver, and how right he had looked sitting in her passenger seat. He made her laugh, because he was so naïve to her life, to what horrible things she had done, and he didn’t seem to care what that part of her life was like. He was separate from her but involved at the same time, a totally different person than she had ever interacted with. She sighed, flipping the book shut and slurping down the last sip of her drink when another was placed on the table. She looked up to thank Carly, her favorite barista, but the words caught in her throat when she found herself looking at none other than Oliver Queen.

“What the fuck.” She blurted, mentally chiding herself for not having a more articulate reaction to seeing Oliver Queen, of all people standing in a coffee shop very few people knew about. He raised an eyebrow as he sat across from her, again dressed in jeans that were sinfully tight and a Henley that let her know just how ripped her was. She narrowed her eyes to play it off, but Oliver smirked at her and she covered by taking a sip of her drink. “So what’re you doing here?”

“Getting coffee.” He said, and she raised her eyebrows, crossing her arms over her chest, as she blatantly stared at the empty table space in front of Oliver. He flushed slightly, running a hand over his stubble, something Felicity purposefully didn’t allow herself to look at. “Okay, so I came to see you.”

Felicity rolled her eyes, taking another sip of her drink before she leaned forward, piercing Oliver with a stare so potent that she saw him involuntarily lean back. Felicity wasn’t as bothered as she pretended to be, but she stood by her decision that her life was entirely too dangerous. Just last week, she’d had to watch Caitlin sew up Roy’s arm after he’d pissed off a member of the Bratva and gotten shot. She loved that Oliver had nothing to do with that part of her life. She wanted to keep it that way.

“Listen, I know you told me to stay away and I told you I didn’t want to.” Felicity sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. She couldn’t justify dragging Oliver into her issues. She didn’t care what he wanted, because as far as she was concerned it wasn’t going to happen.

“Oliver, no. This can’t happen. But, before I leave, how do you even know about this place?” Oliver flushed, reaching up to scratch at the back of his head in lieu of answering. Oliver was hesitant to tell Felicity about Laurel’s involvement, especially since he didn’t know how close they really were. Laurel had seemed thrilled about Oliver wanting to try and make an effort with Felicity, but he would keep her involvement secret until the day he died if he had to.

“Okay. Don’t tell me.” She said, getting up and swinging her bag over her shoulder, leaning over to whisper in his ear, relishing in the goose bumps that rose on his neck. “I’ll find out anyway.” She sauntered out of the coffee shop, gently patting the hood of the R8 as she passed before she dropped into her Camaro, pulling out with tires squealing. Oliver, who had followed Felicity out of the shop once he felt like he had regained feeling in all of his extremities watched her pull away before he climbed into his own car, shooting a text off to Tommy.

 ** _Oliver:_** No go. She bounced almost right after I got there.

 ** _Tommy:_** You just gotta wear her down man. This was just Phase 1. Phase 2 is already in motion.

Oliver was vaguely concerned by the amount of planning Tommy had put into what he called Operation Booty, for reasons beyond Oliver’s understanding, but at the same time he was grateful. He couldn’t give up on Felicity, no matter how much he wanted to.

 

* * *

 

 

“You’ve gotta be shitting me.” Felicity grumbled, flinging her rag onto her tool cart, stalking out of the garage with a huff. Oliver got out of his car, leaning his arms on the top of his car as he spoke to Felicity over it, a self-satisfied smile on his face. There was a glaringly obvious key scratch along the entire right side of the car, and Felicity crouched in front of it with a look of horror. “What the fuck did you do, Oliver.”

Oliver held his hands up in surrender, trying to arrange his face in a mask of polite confusion, but Felicity saw right through him. She should’ve known that Oliver wasn’t going to give up simply because she told him to, and if she was honest with herself, it was endearing; if it were anyone else she would’ve found it ridiculous and creepy, but she had a feeling that she wasn’t as good at hiding her feelings as she thought she was. She also regretted telling Oliver that she was only doing this to protect him, because in doing so, she had let on just how much she cared. Even pissed at him, Felicity was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Her hair was falling out of its ponytail, the loose strands playing across her face. There was a smear of grease on her right cheekbone that he was almost certain she didn’t know was there, and the light sheen of sweat on her face turned Oliver on more than he wanted to admit.

“Don’t play innocent with me, Queen. I know you and Tommy are behind this.” Oliver’s eyes widened minutely, giving him away, and Felicity silently congratulated herself on being right. She knew already that Tommy and Oliver were still the same goons they had been in high school, always getting in trouble side by side. She shook her head, running her fingers along the scratch with a sigh. “I can’t fix this until we get your paint color in, you’ll have to come back.” She knew that she could send him to the paint shop across town, if she really wanted to, but it made her physically ill to think that someone else could potentially to anymore damage to such a beautiful car. Oliver grinned, face lighting up as he nodded, moving to climb back into the car. “I’ll call you when it’s here. And if I ever see you do purposeful damage to this car ever again, I will castrate you. Understood?” Felicity asked sweetly, shutting the door for Oliver before she walked back into the garage, not looking back.

John came to stand next to her tool cart, watching as she attacked the engine with a wrench, her face set into a scowl.

“Was that Queen?” Diggle asked, crossing his arms as Felicity threw the wrench onto the cart with a frustrated sigh, brushing her hair out of her face. Felicity leaned against the car and sent John a pouting look as he burst into laughter, moving to lean against the car next to her. “He’s persistent, I’ll give him that.”

“He’s a pain in my ass, did you see what he did to that car?!” Felicity knew that she was whining, and she was vaguely aware that the last time she had thrown such a hissy fit, everyone had taken to calling her princess for a month until she’d hauled off and punch Roy in the nose, but Oliver drove her crazy. She already spent her every waking minute thinking about him and his stupidly gorgeous face and smile and laugh and the way he had torn her purse apart in her passenger seat so he could get to know her better and the fact that he had somehow figured out where her favorite place in the whole world was. The more he showed up, the more uncertain Felicity was that she was going to be able to stay away from him.

“I think everyone in the shop heard you flip out, Felicity.” John said as he chuckled, winding an arm around her shoulder and pulling her to his side. She rested her head on his shoulder, deflating as she let Diggle start one of his patent big brother lectures. “That boy has gone through plenty of trouble trying to find ways to see you. Roy told me that he showed up at the coffee shop. That place is your world. He’s obviously putting in the effort to try and get to know you, no matter how many times you shut him down. I know that you think that being around the club is too dangerous, and in a way you’re right. It is dangerous. But he should be able to make his own decisions. You knew coming into the club what it would be like, so give him the same opportunity. Lay it all out on the table and let him see what it’s like, and if he stays he stays, and if he doesn’t then you at least tried. I’ve never seen you look at someone the way you look at Queen, and you guys barely know each other. It could really be something, Liss. Don’t write it off just yet.”

Felicity sighed, knowing that everything he said was right. Felicity had dated on and off, very infrequently, but she had; she had never found anyone who made her feel even close to what Oliver made her feel when he looked at her. Diggle was right, they barely knew each other, but from the first moment they’d met, she hadn’t been able to get him out of her head. “It’s dangerous.” She said weakly, knowing that the argument was losing steam, fast.

“You’re more than capable of keeping him safe. Look at Lyla, do you think I’d ever let anything happen to her?” Felicity shook her head, because Lyla was the love of John’s life. She was a certified bad ass, and she had always brought out the rebel in the normally quiet and reserved John. Felicity loved her like she would a sister.

“I just…I’m terrified of getting him hurt, especially if we get closer because I’ve never felt like this with anyone, I’ve never cared that much but for some reason, with him, it’s all just…too much.” Felicity trailed off at the end, playing with her fingers instead of having to look John in the eyes. Out of everyone she knew, even her parents, John and Roy were the two people that were the easiest to talk to. Roy gave off the douchiest persona, and sometimes he lived up to it, but he knew Felicity like the back of his hand, and he always let her vent her feelings out until she felt better. John was, and always would be, her voice of reason. He was calm where she was too wound up and she found that she needed that. The thing with her and Oliver, was that it scared her to get too attached when there were too many things to tear them apart. If he didn’t fit into the club, if something happened to him, if he decided that Felicity’s life was too much for him, it would end everything.

“Don’t shut him out because of what could be, because you never know how anything is going to turn out until you put yourself into the situation.” Felicity heaved a put upon sigh, flicking a mildly annoyed glance John’s way.

“You’re right.” She admitted begrudgingly, ignoring his self-satisfied smirk in favor of turning back to the car, setting to work again.

 

* * *

 

 

“Jesus Christ are you stalking me now?!” Felicity shrieked, garnering the attention of the entire store as Oliver flushed an irritatingly attractive shade of red. He pulled Felicity closer to the cereal rack, casting a concerned glance at the guy with her, who he’d seen at the shop. He looked nice enough, but he didn’t want to press his luck because he’d heard enough about the club to have a healthy fear of them, but the guy hid a laugh behind his hand, glancing at him over Felicity’s head.

“I’m not…stalking, per se I just keep happening to run into you. Coincidentally.” Felicity narrowed her eyes, taking a step forward and Oliver backed into the cereal, his hands raised in surrender. “Okay, so it might seem like I’m stalking you but I’m not. Okay I am!” He said quickly when Felicity stepped forward again with a dangerous glint in her eyes. Oliver raked his eyes over her body, searching for any sign of her gun, and also because Felicity was in tight leather pants and a black tank top with a leather jacket over it, her hair held back with a red bandana the same color as her lips, and Oliver was struggling to keep his body in a state acceptable for a grocery store. “I just…I kept wanting to see you. I literally can’t stop thinking about you, okay, I’m driving Tommy nuts, and even my sister wants to punch me in the face and if you really want nothing to do with me then say so and I’ll stop, I promise, I just couldn’t give up while I thought you might like me.”

Felicity opened her mouth to respond but she was cut off by John, who was looking at Oliver with a look Felicity didn’t like at all, because Roy always looked like that before he made Felicity’ s life a living hell, and she was proven right when John asked Oliver if he had ever been to a street race. Felicity made a noise of protest, but she was cut off by Oliver’s unnecessarily enthusiastic no, and before she could say a word John and Oliver were heading out of the grocery store, chatting like old friends and not two strangers who had met 5 minutes prior.

“I’m going to kill you.” She hissed to John as she pulled her seat forward to Oliver could climb in the back, and he had to sit leaned back with his legs on either side of the center console to fit comfortably, and Felicity had to forcibly tilt her rearview mirror up to keep herself from staring at Oliver too long, because she wanted to climb him like a tree, but she was also beyond pissed that John had invited him. It was an innocent race, just for the club, but that almost made things worse. He would be forced to meet everyone at once, in a place where there was nowhere else for him to go. Instead of heading to the track out of town, they had decided to have the race in the old factory part of town. It was mostly abandoned, and the tight corners provided the perfect drift course.

“She’ll get over it.” John said, shifting in his seat to look back at Oliver, who cast a terrified glance at Felicity, because John had balls talking about her like that when she was two feet away from him, but Felicity didn’t even flinch. “She gets like that, before races. You can say anything under the sun, she’s too wrapped up in her thoughts to really care.” Oliver nodded, taking the time to really look at Felicity, to take his time and stare at her without getting caught. She was gorgeous, he knew that, but what got him is how effortlessly beautiful she was. It wasn’t just the way she looked, it was the personality that shone out of her. He remembered seeing her laugh for the first time, and he would swear that the world around them had gotten brighter, and when she smiled, really genuinely smiled, it did something weird to his stomach that he didn’t quite understand. Oliver had spent most of high school sleeping with anything that moved in his direction. He operated well with a different girl every night. He had never been one for commitment. He had grown up some when his father died and he was faced with inheriting the company, but he still hadn’t found anyone that captured his attention for more than 24 hours, until he met Felicity. He didn’t understand what it was about her, or what had happened to him when they met but she had been on his mind every day since.

They were silent as they pulled up to the where the rest of the club had gathered, non-drivers with a beer in their hands as they all got loud together. Felicity parked next to Roy, who was leaning against his prized Mustang, tearing into Barry for having driven his Porsche. Barry had been with the club since Felicity had. His parents had died young, and her mother had taken him in as one of her own. Felicity didn’t see much of Barry these days; he had gotten a job with SCPD in the crime unit, but she would always have a soft spot for him. He hugged her when she got out of her car, bursting into laughter when Oliver climbed out of the back.  “Hey, Felicity, you had a stow away.” Roy grumbled, casting Oliver a dark glance as he walked by. Oliver rolled his eyes, turning to stand next to Barry and Felicity instead.

“Hey man, I don’t know if you remember me from school, I’m Barry.” Oliver nodded, shaking Barry’s hand with a polite smile before his eyes raked across everyone else there, and Felicity could see the mild panic in his eyes. She wrapped her fingers around his wrist, pulling him from person to person, hoping that the quick introductions would be good enough to ease some of his discomfort. Cisco and Caitlin weren’t far from where Barry had been, and Oliver found that they were some of his favorite people that he met that night. Barry was, apparently, the same age as Felicity, even though Oliver had always thought that he was younger.  Cisco was energetic and hilarious, even in the brief time that Oliver spent meeting him, with Felicity’s fingers still wrapped around his wrist, something that Caitlin pointed out with a small grin. Caitlin was quiet but brilliant, and she seemed to be the yin to Cisco’s yang.

When the race was about to start, Felicity dragged Oliver away from the group, pushing him against the wall with one hand as she leveled him with a stare. “Do not piss these people off, Oliver. Keep your head down, stick with Barry and John, and just try to get to know them, Caitlin and Cisco. They’re the least harmful. If the club would decide that they didn’t like you, that would be the end of your stalking days, you got me?” Oliver gulped, nodding his understanding as Felicity removed her hand from his chest, crossing her arms as her face softened. “Wish me luck.” She said with a small smile as she headed back to her car, starting the engine and turning to look at Roy, who was one of the people she was racing against.

“You ready to get your ass kicked?” She asked with a laugh, revving her engine with glee. Roy rolled his eyes, revving his engine right back at her as John signaled the start of the race. They took off quickly, taking the first corner with a practiced ease as they sped out of sight. Oliver wandered back towards Barry and John, listening as they talked about the specs of Felicity’s car, which he knew nothing about. He had never been into the details of a car, all that had mattered to him was which car would get him the most girls. Barry, who had noticed that Oliver was next to them, had taken pity on him and settled for dumbing down his sentences, making sure to explain everything they were talking about. Oliver’s apprehension about being left with the club evaporated almost immediately after that.

“Do you hear that?” John asked suddenly, moments before unfamiliar cars pulled into the pavilion, guns hanging out of open windows. Barry dropped into a crouch, pulling Oliver down with him as Diggle pulled a gun out of a holster by his side, hiding in an open alcove as he returned fire. Oliver didn’t know where the rest of the club had gone, and he briefly hoped that Cisco and Caitlin had managed to get away when a car skidded to a halt right next to him.

Felicity swung the passenger door of her Camaro open as she stopped, yelling for Oliver to get in before focusing her attention on John. “John, it’s the Triad-“

“Get out of here!” He yelled, covered by Barry who was the next person to return fire to the unmarked vehicles that were slowly pulling out of the pavilion, tailing the cars of members of the club. John moved closer to the car, close enough that they could be heard without shouting as Oliver buckled himself in with shaking hands. “Go to his apartment. Don’t contact the club until you hear from me, do you understand?” Felicity nodded, letting John shut the door as she swung the car around with a squeal of tires, mounting a curb as she maneuvered around the Triad.

“Felicity, who the fuck are the Triad?” Oliver asked, flinching involuntarily when he saw the headlights flashing behind them as a car trailed them through the narrow streets. Felicity chewed on her lip nervously, hand fidgeting on the gear shift as she tried to keep a mask of calm. She was upset that she’d had to leave John and Barry, and God only knows who else, but she knew that her staying around would only be a risk. The daughter of the leader of the Green Riders would be too good of a bargaining chip.

“They’re a rival club, but I have no idea what happened to make them attack us openly like this, this is-“ her sentence was cut off as she shrieked, reaching out to grab Oliver’s shoulder and shove him into the floor well of the passenger side as bullets shattered her back windshield, the cold fall wind ripping through the car. She stepped on the gas, accelerating onto the highway, almost causing an accident that managed to give them enough time to get out of sight of the Triad. “Fuck, Oliver, are you okay?” Felicity asked, breathless, as Oliver returned himself to his seat, buckling himself back in with a confused air. He realized that Felicity must’ve unbuckled him as she pushed him down, and he was almost too scared to look at his seat and see if any of the bullets had come close to where he had been sitting.

“Yeah, I’m fine-oh my god is that blood?” Oliver asked, gaping at the cut in her leather jacket that he could see the skin of her upper arm through, but he could also see the blood seeping out of it, down the arm of her jacket at a pace that seemed alarming to Oliver. Felicity clenched her teeth as she glanced down at it, breathing through her nose before the addressed Oliver.

“There’s a first aid kit in the glove box. I need you to grab it and get the gauze out and wrap my arm up, okay?” Oliver nodded, forcing himself to keep his composure and not think about how much he wanted to throw up. Oliver sifted through the glove compartment, shoving a gun, and a folder that he assumed had responsible things like her registration to the side before he found the first aid kit tucked in the back corner. He ripped the gauze out, reaching out to help Felicity pull her arm out of the jacket, doing his best to avoid reacting to her pained whimpers because he knew that she would only get more upset. So he took a deep breath through his nose, refusing to think about how coppery the car smelled as he tightly wrapped the gauze around her arm. 

“I live in a penthouse apartment with Tommy.” Oliver told Felicity, eyes stuck on the red tinge of his skin, as he rattled the address off to Felicity. She got them there in minutes, eyes constantly glancing in her rear view for anyone who might have trailed them. She was on edge and worked up, scared that she was going to miss something and be the reason the Triad found them. Her arm felt like it was on fire, and she knew by the fact that she could still move her arm that it had only been a graze, but it would still probably need stitches.

She pulled into an underground car garage, parking in a far corner in the back that held Oliver’s R8. The security guard barely cast them a second glance, as Oliver held onto the first aid kit, slipping Felicity’s gun into the waistband of his pants as he grabbed her hand, leading her to the elevator that would take them straight to the apartment.

“Tommy should be out with Laurel, so we hopefully don’t have to deal with him right now.” Oliver told her, and she nodded, adjusting Oliver’s shirt in the back to better cover the shape of the gun. She was surprised that his instincts had told him to grab it, which was something she had planned on doing herself. She leaned against Oliver in the elevator, feeling lightheaded from the adrenaline and the blood loss, and he responded by wrapping his arm around her waist, helping her out of the elevator and into the silent apartment. He directed her towards his bedroom, which was almost the size of the house that she lived in with her parents, and then through his bedroom towards the bathroom, which was almost the same size as the bedroom, and she decided she would marvel on his wealth later, after she collapsed onto the edge of the massive bathtub.

“What do you need me to do?” He asked her, kneeling in front of her as he rested his hands on her hips to keep her upright.

“I need you to stitch up the graze.” She whispered, reaching her good arm out for the first aid kit. She pulled out the things that she would need, while Oliver went to rummage in his desk, coming back with a handle of expensive Russian vodka. He downed a mouthful before he handed it to Felicity, watching, impressed, as she drank more than he had with ease, barely flinching at the burn.

She gave him quick, concise instructions on what to do as she held the edge of the bathtub in a white knuckled grip, teeth gritted as Oliver did his best to stitch her up, trying his hardest to keep them in a straight line. He was amazed that he hadn’t thrown up by the time he finished, instead turning to take another gulp from the bottle of vodka that Felicity had steadily sipped from. He stood her up, keeping his hands on her waist until he was sure that she had her balance before he turned the shower on, turning back to her as she put everything back in the first aid kit, glancing at the stitches in the mirror.

“Not bad, Queen, not bad.” Her voice was clear, barely even affected by the amount of vodka she’d had, and he wondered briefly just how little of Felicity’s bad ass side he had seen.

“I’ll go grab you some clothes. Go ahead and climb into the shower. You can’t see through the glass, so don’t flip out when I come back in.” He told her, heading into his room as he heard Felicity’s shirt drop to the floor. He forced himself to keep his eyes forward as he grabbed her one of his Henley’s and a pair of his boxers. He waited until he heard the shower door open and shut before he brought the clothes in, throwing Felicity’s blood stained clothes into the sink, soaking them with soap and cold water. Felicity stuck her head out of the shower, her blonde hair dark and sticking to her shoulder and arm.

“Are you washing the blood out of my clothes?” She asked, her eyes lit up with mirth as she watched him flush before he turned back to the sink, wringing her clothes out.

“You’re gonna need normal clothes to wear at some point, unless you want to walk out of the apartment in boxers and my shirt.” It was Felicity’s turn to flush as Oliver leveled her with a glance, one eyebrow raised. She retreated back into the shower, and Oliver took the time to throw Felicity’s clothes in the washer in the apartment. Laurel had thrown the most epic of fits when she found out that he and Tommy still weren’t doing their own laundry, so she had taken it upon herself to teach them. By the time Oliver got back to his room, Felicity was sprawled out on his bed, wet hair dripping onto his shirt as she made herself comfortable. Oliver chuckled as he grabbed his own clothes, stepping into the shower to give himself a moment of separation from Felicity. Being around her made his blood sing, and his heart race, and every cheesy cliché he’d ever heard of. Given tonight’s events, he knew that he should be terrified. He knew that he should be running for the hills with his tail between his legs, but he knew that he wasn’t going to.

When he walked back into his bedroom, Felicity was curled up on his side of the bed fast asleep. He adjusted her so he could get the comforter to cover her. He bent to press a kiss to her forehead, and when he moved to take up residence on the couch he felt her fingers wrap around his wrist.

“You don’t have to go.” She said quietly, shifting back until Oliver had room to crawl in next to her. They lay on their sides facing each other, and for a while Oliver thought she had fallen back asleep. “So. You saw tonight what I’ve been telling you. About how dangerous everything is.” Oliver nodded, eyes tracing over the stitches standing out against her pale skin. “You kept your cool.” She whispered, fidgeting with the sleeves of the shirt she was wearing. Oliver pushed some of the hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear.

“I told you, I don’t want to go anywhere. I don’t want to leave.” She closed her eyes, reaching out to trace Oliver’s collar bones. He hadn’t bothered putting a shirt on after his shower, figuring that he was going to be sleeping on the couch anyway, and he watched her trace her eyes along his torso, her lip caught between her teeth.

“I don’t think I could handle it if something happened to you, and it was my fault.” He leaned forward, cupping her cheek in his hand, tilting her head back so that she would make eye contact with him.

“Don’t push me away.” She swore under her breath before she moved forward, capturing Oliver’s lips with hers. He groaned when she bit his lip, her tongue pushing against his. She tasted like vodka and mint, and she smelled like him, and her hands were in his hair, and Oliver decided in that moment that it didn’t matter what happened to them, because their first kiss was the best first kiss of his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 3! Things are starting to pick up and (obviously) this wasn't going to be a slow burn story. But I hope you guys are still interested! Leave me a comment with your thoughts. All the Love.


	4. Chapter 4

“Felicity. Felicity. Fe-li-ci-ty. Wake up.” Felicity groaned loudly, turning away from the voice to bury her head in the pillow, yanking the comforter over her head. Oliver bit his lip to hide a smile as he sat next to Felicity’s body, pulling the comforter down to press his mouth to her neck until she turned, glancing up at him with bleary eyes. He leaned down to kiss her, slowly tracing his tongue along her bottom lip, smirking when he felt her arms wrap around his neck, pulling his torso flush against hers. “Your phone’s been ringing for 10 minutes now.” He told her, nipping at her lip when she pouted before he pushed off of her, grabbing her phone off of the nightstand and handing it to her.

“Hello?” she asked sitting up and attempting to flatten her curls with one hand, still in the process of waking herself up. Oliver kissed her on the cheek before he walked out of the room, and Felicity couldn’t help the smile that took over her features.

“Hey. Just wanted to check up on you after last night.” John said from the other end of the line, and Felicity could hear Lyla in the background. She felt a pang of guilt, regretting that she hadn’t contacted anyone from the club last night, and she was sure she had one or two messages from Roy.

“Shit, I should’ve called but I got…distracted.” Felicity mumbled, standing up and stretching as she walked over to Oliver’s mirror, winding curls around her finger to try and tame them. She pulled on the sleeve of Oliver’s shirt, shifting it until she could see the line of stitches on her upper arm. Oliver really had done well, and she didn’t feel like she’d be able to thank him enough for keeping calm.

“I’m guessing you finally listened to my sage advice.” Felicity rolled her eyes, plopping back onto the bed, leaning against the multiple pillows against the headboard. There was nothing that John loved more than being right.

“I didn’t have much of a choice, he had to sew a line of stitches into my arm. The Triad shattered my whole back windshield. I have no idea what other damage there is and I don’t think I want to know.” It wasn’t the first time that her car had suffered bullet damage, and she was sure that it wouldn’t be the last, but she felt like her irritation stemmed from the fact that anything could’ve happened to Oliver if she hadn’t reacted fast enough.

“Are you okay?” John asked, voice immediately concerned, and Felicity quickly reassured him that she was fine before Oliver came back into the room carrying two mugs. Felicity took the time to unashamedly stare at his torso, which looked like it had literally been carved from stone. Oliver noticed where her attention had gone and he smirked, winking at her as he handed her a cup of coffee.

“Hey, I gotta go, but let everyone know I’m okay and that I’ll be by later.” She said quickly before she hung up, putting her coffee and Oliver’s on the side table before she pounced at him, catching his lips in a hard kiss as they tumbled onto the bed. “I wasn’t awake enough to appreciate your physique this morning. Jesus Christ.” She mumbled against his lips as he moved to pull her shirt over her head, and he hesitated when she hissed as the shirt dragged across her stiches, but she pulled it the rest of the way off and throwing it, dragging her hands down his torso as he latched onto her neck. She felt him shudder when she teased her nails down his abs and she filed that away for later, determined to get his pants off of him when someone knocked on Oliver’s door before barging in.

“Hey man-holy shit!” Tommy clapped a hand over his eyes as Oliver jumped out of bed, picking Felicity’s shirt up and tossing it at her, before sitting on the edge of the bed and dropping his face into his hands in frustration before he glared at Tommy.

“You can open your eyes, Merlyn, I’m decent.” Felicity told him, laughter evident in her voice as she pressed a kiss to the underside of Oliver’s jaw before grabbing her coffee and settling against the headboard.

“Sorry, man.” Tommy stage whispered as he came further into the room, taking up residence in the desk chair as Oliver moved to sit next to Felicity, his own coffee in hand.

“What were you yelling about, Tommy, Jesus, some people are still asleep at this hour.” Laurel called from down the hall, the sound of her voice getting closer until she was in the doorway, taking in Felicity’s disheveled state and Oliver’s look of annoyance before she turned to her boyfriend with a pointed look. “Seriously? You spend weeks planning on getting them together and then you cock block them.”

Felicity burst into laughter as Oliver choked on his coffee, Tommy’s eyes widening to the size of dinner plates as he cast a terrified glance in Oliver’s direction. “I should’ve known it was you.” Felicity said through her giggles, not missing the way that Tommy and Oliver were having a silent conversation through wide eyed glances of confusion. “Laurel and I are friends, we pretty much grew up together. We don’t run into each other often, and I totally forgot about her dating Tommy, or I would’ve figured it out sooner, but obviously she knew enough to tell you places I’d be. Good job, Laurel.” Felicity said, raising her cup in a form of salute as Laurel winked at her, and Felicity was sure that if Tommy’s mouth fell open in surprise any more than it had, his tongue would fall out of his head.

“I feel like I’ve been played.” Tommy mumbled weakly from the desk chair as Felicity and Laurel both rolled their eyes. Oliver stayed mute next to them, and returned to his earlier expression of annoyance at Tommy, like everything that had happened was exclusively his fault.

“Okay, well, obviously there’s a lot that everyone doesn’t know about each other so why don’t we solve this by feeding me because Oliver doesn’t know this yet, but I get hangry.” Felicity announced, and Oliver cast a questioning glance in Laurel’s direction that was met with a pointed look of acknowledgement, and Oliver jumped out of bed, heading down the hall to grab Felicity’s clothes that he’d thrown in the dryer when he woke up before he came back to Laurel herding Tommy to his room while shaking her head.

Oliver came back in with Felicity’s clothes in hand and found her wandering around his room, looking at all of the picture frames that held pictures of his family and friends. She had reached up to touch the frame of one with him and Thea, and it had pulled the edge of the boxers she was wearing up enough to show the barest hint of a tattoo along her upper thigh. Oliver came to stand next to her, and traced his fingers along the bottom edge of her shorts, hearing a small gasp let out through her teeth.

She gently brushed his hand out of the way, stepping back and pulling the waistband of the boxers down her right leg, until the black and white portrait of a roaring lion, stopping just underneath the waistband of her underwear, was completely on display. He reached out to trace a finger over it, catching Felicity’s eye afterwards. His eyes had darkened to a deep, dark blue, and she bit her lip to keep from jumping him.

“This is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.” Felicity groaned, returning her waistband to where it belonged, before she grabbed her clothes from Oliver, speed walking to the bathroom.

“If I don’t get dressed right now we’re going to end up in bed together and I so do not need Tommy walking in on that.” She called through the door, and Oliver thumped his head against the wall, repeatedly, as he willed his boner into submission. Felicity was right, they didn’t need Tommy rushing them, or walking in, both possibilities that were too likely to happen. He wanted to take his time with Felicity, to really take her apart piece by piece until he had found every part of her body that made her scream. There was another part of him that desperately wanted to wait, until Felicity knew that he was being serious, that he was desperate to make this work because the feelings he had for her were anything but a joke. He walked to the closet, grabbing a pair of slacks and a button down, knowing he would have to stop by Queen Consolidated later to check in on his mother, and get some of the class work done that he had been ignoring for far too long.

Oliver had grown up, slightly, when his father had died in a car accident. His mother had taken over as interim CEO until Oliver finished his last few semesters of college. He was lucky enough to have found somewhere that offered online courses, letting him work with his mother as he finished classes, gaining the experiences he would need to take over. Moira pushed him, hard, but he was lucky to have someone as supportive as his mother was. She knew that he wasn’t going to grow up overnight, and she worked with that.

Felicity stepped out of the bathroom, her hair thrown into a quick French braid. She tossed her torn leather jacket onto the bed, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to wear it out. She was also thinking about what to do about her back windshield when she stepped into the closet, whistling at Oliver when she saw what he was wearing.

“You clean up nice.” She told him, slapping his hands out of the way as she tied his tie for him, patting his cheeks when she was done. “I’m stealing one of your plaids, since my jacket is torn to shit.” Oliver motioned for her to go ahead, trying to push down the feeling of domestic bliss he got when he saw Felicity casually rooting through his things. It was too soon, much too soon, for him to be feeling the things that he was, and part of it scared him. Felicity was a spit fire, and she was wild, and he knew that things between them wouldn’t be the same day to day because her life was entirely unpredictable; getting in too deep too soon would do nothing but hurt them both.

“You ready?” Oliver asked her, resting a hand on her lower back as they walked out of the closet. She nodded, before she stopped, and turned to the desk, grabbing her gun and tucking it into the waistband of her pants, pulling the plaid over it.

“I’m gonna need to grab my bag out of my car, and hope that it’s actually still there.” She told Oliver, wincing when she thought about how many things she’d forgotten to do last night, between the gunshot and thoughts of Oliver clouding all of her judgement.

Oliver nodded, leading Felicity to the elevator that would take them back down to the garage, and now that she was coherent, she could see that Oliver, and she was assuming Tommy, would have to swipe a keycard to get up to their apartment. She sighed when they got to the garage and she took a closer look at her Camaro. The back windshield had collapsed into her car, throwing glass everywhere but not cutting anything. She found the bullet lodged in her dashboard, and she knew that she would have to take it apart to find if the bullet had clipped any wires, or if it had gone through to her engine compartment. She grabbed her bag, miraculously with everything still inside, and threw the gun into it as she threw it over her shoulder. Oliver handed her the keys to the R8, kissing her cheek as she squealed, before throwing herself into the driver’s seat.

“Tommy texted, he and Laurel are at that diner over on 6th Street.” Felicity cheered as she pulled out of the garage, heading into Starling as Oliver fiddled with the radio. “After this I have to head into QC, get some work done.” He told Felicity, relaxing back into the leather seats as Felicity hummed along to the radio.

“That’s fine, I’m gonna have to head to the garage and get an order in for a new windshield. I should also probably let everyone know that I’m alive.” Oliver shook his head, grinning, as Felicity parallel parked the R8 in front of the diner, climbing out and walking onto the sidewalk.

“You can drop me off at work and take the R8 to the garage. Have Barry or John tow the Camaro in, and it makes me feel better that the Triad won’t know it’s you if you’re driving the R8.” Felicity turned, surging up to press a kiss to his lips. He froze, momentarily, before he rested his hands on her waist, pulling her closer. It did something funny to her chest when he referenced John and Barry with ease, thinking like another member of the club would. She was still hesitant to let him too close to the club, to the danger, but she knew that if he adapted quickly, he would be safer. Everything about her feelings towards Oliver were confusing and overwhelming, and they contradicted themselves what felt like every other minute, but she couldn’t deny that with him, she felt a calm and a sense of home she had never felt.

“What was that for?” He asked her, his forehead resting against hers as they both slowed their breathing, in the middle of the sidewalk in front of a crowded diner.

“Just because.” She teased, smiling at him before pulling him into the diner.

“Nice show, you two!” Tommy called out to them, earning a pointed look from Oliver and a quick middle finger from Felicity, given as they crossed the diner to sit across from the other couple.

“I need some pancakes, I’m fucking starving.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Nice ride.” Roy called out as Felicity parked the R8, and she flipped him off as she climbed out of it, heading for the back office. She felt guiltier now than she had before that she hadn’t called last night, and she was sure that even though John had undoubtedly told at least her mother that she was going to be with Oliver, she was probably pissed.

“Hey, mom.” She said as she leaned against the open doorframe, watching her mom shuffle paperwork on the desk before she jumped at the sound of Felicity’s voice, coming up to wrap her in her arms.

“Oh, Felicity, I was so worried! John told me you were with Oliver, like I was supposed to know who that was.” Felicity chuckled, squeezing her mom before she pulled back. Felicity hadn’t told anyone about her feelings for Oliver before last night, convinced that if she pretended they didn’t exist they would go away, but she knew that her face was betraying her attempt at nonchalance when Donna narrowed her eyes, grabbing Felicity’s shoulder.

Donna Smoak was not the kind of woman to let anything get past her. She knew everyone’s business at all times, as mother hen of the club, and it was pointless to try and lie to her, because her bullshit detector was better than even Felicity’s was. She was the kindest, sweetest woman any of them had ever had the chance of meeting, but even Felicity knew that getting on her bad side was the wrong side to be on. “Oliver who, Felicity?”

“Queen.” Felicity mumbled, cheeks flushing as her mother shrieked, drawing the attention of Roy, who ran into the room, holding a wrench like a knife.

“Christ, Roy, we’re fine, mom’s just shitting bricks.” Felicity grumbled as Donna hugged her again, jumping up and down with joy.

“Oh, Felicity, you finally meet someone and it’s Oliver Queen of all people! I do hope you’ve been behaving, there’s no need for him to think we’re all Neanderthals.” Felicity rolled her eyes, throwing up her hands as she walked out of the office, Roy and Donna following her, the former with a sour look on his face.

“Felicity, where the fuck is your car?” Roy asked her, casting a dark glance at the R8, which sent Donna into another fit of squeals. Felicity sighed as she kept walking, determined to find John.

“My car needs to be towed, because the goddamn Triad blew up my back windshield, which I’m going to have to order a new one, mom, if you want to help me out. It’s why I came to find John and Barry.” Felicity dodged through cars, leaving Roy to go back to his station and her mom to go back to the office, hopefully to order a new windshield.

Felicity found John and Barry in the back of the garage, sorting tires from their shipment into manageable stacks. Their back room was stocked with anything that they could need for small fixes, and they’d had a complete set of windshields ordered for Felicity, but it wasn’t the first time that she’d ended up with a broken windshield and she knew it wouldn’t be the last. Felicity walked around a stack of boxed shots and struts, grabbing a crate and plopping down on it while she watched them.

“Nice shirt.” John said with a laugh, and Felicity ignored the grins they cast each other, choosing to pick at her nail polish instead. It was foreign for her to be on the brunt end of all of the jokes. They had all teased Barry multiple times about the way he fell for people in a heartbeat, and they’d all seen Roy go through girls like tic tacs, but Felicity had always been better off on her own. She liked being on her own, she always had, so it messed with her head to realize how much she had already fallen into Oliver and his life, and how at ease he seemed to be with her life, and John and Barry, and though she wasn’t used to being the one teased for her relationships, the fact that they were doing it meant that they accepted Oliver.

“What’s up, Felicity?” Barry asked as he wiped his hands on his jeans, coming to pull a crate up next to her as John did the same. Felicity sighed, clasping her hands in front of her as she leaned her elbows onto her knees, looking John in the eyes.

“What do we know about last night?” She asked, and she could tell by the way both Barry and John’s faces set into identical expressions of frustration, that they knew nothing. It had been easy to forget about last night with Oliver at her side, but the reality of the situation was that they were all in danger. Unprovoked attacks by other clubs happened rarely, next to never, because attacks like that meant retaliation, and everyone knew that retaliation meant slaughter. The Triad had started a war, and the only thing left to do would be to figure out what they were going to do about it.

“Your dad’s been pretty MIA. We don’t really know what his decision was. But opening fire onto one of our races? That’s not going to go unnoticed, by us or by the other chapters.” She could tell that Barry was pissed, and a part of her was too. Her father, as president of the club was responsible for telling them what they were going to do. They couldn’t make any decisions about retaliating without his approval.

“Something about it just seems…off, I don’t know. We deal drugs with the Triad, so why would they come to our race and shoot it up? Not only that, but they tailed me halfway across the city. I only lost them at the last minute.” John rubbed his hands across his face, sighing as he looked between the two of them.

“We just need to let it go for now. We keep our heads down, and we keep away from any of the gun and drug running. There’s probably going to be at least one more gun run but I think they’ll understand if we take a break after.” Felicity wasn’t pleased with the idea, but there was no way that she was going to be able to do anything about it. It was the hardest part of club life; the need to do something after being attacked but knowing that anything done by one person would come back on the entire club.

“God, I need to hit something.” Felicity grumbled, standing up and stretching before she winced when the stitches pulled at her skin. They were more irritating than painful; she’d had too many sets of stitches to be bothered by them, but Barry didn’t miss it.

“Let Caitlin check those stitches out, would you?” He asked, and Felicity nodded, knowing it was pointless to argue. It wasn’t an outrageous request, and if she wanted John and Barry to tow her car without causing issues, it was good to let them be reassured she was fine.

The garage, including the main office and back room, were all part of what they sometimes referred to as the club house. They’d built onto the garage to make sure that there was somewhere for them to all be able to meet, to handle business, while still operating the garage. Caitlin had set up an intensive care area, for the amount of times people got shot or injured in other ways during club business. She worked at Starling General Hospital, one of the few members of the club to not work in the garage, and she had patched all of them up more than any of them could thank her for. They had a fully stocked bar and pool table set up, for everyone to gather and forget about their outside problems.

The club house reflected on the idea that the club was a family. Felicity had spent multiple nights curled up on the couch there while the John and Barry played pool, or Roy played Xbox, and they’d all gotten blackout drunk on multiple occasions, crashing wherever was remotely comfortable. She could see Oliver there with her, teasing her with John, or playing pool with Barry, or helping Caitlin patch someone up. She could see Oliver in every aspect of her club life, and the realization only added to her confusion.

“Felicity? You okay?” John asked her, snapping his fingers in front of her face to get her attention. She nodded, smiling, as she moved to walk out of the stock room and into the garage to get back out to Oliver’s car. She would stop by the hospital and see Caitlin on her way home, before she headed home to grab a bag to stay at Oliver’s.

“Hey, can you guys stop by later and tow the Camaro in? The bullet’s lodged in the dash and I want to check it out before I try driving it and end up blowing myself up.”

“Yeah, just text us the address.” John told her as they walked her back out to the R8, hugging her before she climbed in and started the car. She waved as she pulled away, heading to Starling General with too many thoughts swirling in her mind.

 

* * *

 

 

“Babe, your phone.” Oliver called out, from the living room, causing both of them to freeze, staring at each other for a minute before Oliver shrugged, and brought her phone to where she was standing in the kitchen getting a glass of water.

“Yeah?” She asked as she answered the phone, her voice slightly breathless, earning an exasperated sigh from the other end of the line.

“Stop making out with Queen and meet me by the docks. We got a job.” Roy told her, and from the background noise she knew that he was already on the way there.

“I still don’t have a car, come get me.” Oliver made a noise of protest from beside her and she glanced at him questioningly, cocking an eyebrow as he flushed.

“Take the R8.” She shook her head, starting to make an argument but he cut her off with a kiss, moving to grab his keys from where he’d dropped them into a bowl on the counter.

“Did you-“

“Yes, I heard your boyfriend offer you his fancy car, you can thank him in sexual favors later, we don’t have time. Actually, I’m sure he’s fast so go ahead.” Felicity rolled her eyes, hanging up on Roy without any other conversation. She eyed Oliver speculatively, twirling his keys around her finger.

“What if it ends up with bullets in it?” She asked, and Oliver laughed, even though he knew she was serious. If he was honest, he didn’t give a damn what happened to the car. He loved the car, and before he’d scratched Felicity’s bumper he had driven it more carefully than anything else he’d ever owned. It was flashy, it was expensive, and it fit into his lifestyle, but it had just been a car until Felicity had driven it like it was meant to be driven, drifted around corners with finesse. He saw how her face lit up every time she drove it, and as much as he loved his car he knew Felicity loved it more.

“I trust that you’ll fix the car if anything happens to it.” She laughed at that before moving to pull on her shoes, keys still in hand.

“I’ll be back after.” Oliver nodded, resting his hands on her hips before he kissed her, harder than he had meant to, judging by the small gasp she let out. He pushed her against the wall by the elevator, smirking when she dropped the keys on the floor, wrapping her arms around his neck. She’d thrown the comment about bullet holes out so lightly, and he knew that it was because she was too used to being shot at, but it didn’t change that it worried him. He’d been on edge every time she’d left ever since the Triad had attacked them, and he felt like he was sending her off into a warzone every time she left the apartment.

He’d seen Felicity staring off into space a few times, and she frequently pushed herself into a kiss before she’d pull back, laughing it off as she played with his hair. John hadn’t told him much, but he knew that things with Felicity were going to be a game of give and take. She’d been hesitant to even let him in to her life, and then it seemed like they’d gone from one end of the spectrum to the other in almost no time at all. They’d spent all afternoon in the apartment, laughing and watching movies, making out like teenagers, but it had all seemed like it was changing everything about their lives. Oliver couldn’t explain how it felt like every minute with Felicity was setting them up for something bigger. He couldn’t explain why when she laughed it made his heart ache in his chest. He couldn’t explain why when he kissed her and she leaned further into him, dragging her hands through his hair like she was, her chest pressed against his, it made him lose all sense of time and space so that the only thing that mattered was the two of them.

“Yeah, I really have to go.” She panted against his lips, and they both noticed how she didn’t move away, her fingers still latched in his hair. Oliver pecked her lips twice before forcing himself to step back, picking the keys up off the floor before pressing the button for the elevator.

“Be careful.” He told her, and he saw her smirk at how breathless he sounded before she winked at him, stepping into the elevator.

“Always am.” She thumped her head back against the wall as the elevator moved down, giving herself the ride down to the garage to compose herself and get her focus on track. She really wanted to go back upstairs and see just how breathless she could get Oliver, but she knew that this job needed to be finished, and that she needed to be in the right mindset.

She shook herself as she got into the car, and by the time she got to the docks, she was ready for the job. She parked next to the Mustang, wrapping Oliver’s shirt closer around her body as stepped out, coming around to lean against her bumper, facing Roy.

“What’s the job?” They were at the docks, which were deserted and dark, the only light source a single bulb on top of a rickety pole. Fall was coming into Starling, and the winds ripped across the open concrete hard enough to make Felicity’s teeth chatter. Roy leaned against his front bumper, crossing his arms over his chest as he faced her.

“Running guns to the Central City charter. They’re meeting us halfway.” Felicity nodded as they waited for the shipment to come in. The gun supply that they got came from somewhere in Germany, where Darkh had connections. They shipped the guns to the Irish chapter of the Green Riders, who in turn shipped it to Starling. It wasn’t easy shipping guns country to country, and it had been even harder to get them into Starling until Darkh and Felicity’s father, before his death, had made a deal with Detective Lance. They would supply to police department with the guns they couldn’t afford, but needed, and in return, Lance would look the other way as they distributed the other guns.

Felicity smiled when she saw Ronnie with the shipment on a small, unobtrusive boat. It looked like it was ready to fall apart but it was quiet and it did its job. Ronnie had started out with their chapter, years ago, but when they started a chapter in Belfast he took the first opportunity to leave Starling. She wrapped him in a hug when he jumped onto the docks, and while they chatted, Roy unloaded the crates, filling the trunk of each car, and Felicity thanked the gods that it was a small shipment. They chatted with Ronnie, filling him in on what had been going on, and a look of unease crossed his face.

“Whatever’s been going on isn’t limited to Starling. We’ve been having problems in Belfast, too. Just be careful, alright?” They all agreed, saying their goodbyes before they watched Ronnie sail away, his hand up in a wave.

“I don’t like this whole thing, Fel.” Roy said, gently kicking at his tire while he stared out over the docks. Felicity moved to lean next to him, resting her head on his shoulder while he wrapped an arm around her.

“I don’t either. But we’ll figure out what’s going on.” She said, pressing a kiss to his cheek before she walked around their cars, pulling open the driver door.

“Did you hear that?” Roy asked, frozen halfway into his car, and Felicity reacted quickly, reaching into the car to grab at her gun, only to be pulled from the car and tossed onto the concrete. She rolled on impact, coming up in a crouch a few feet away from a tall man, imposing and leering, next to a shorter man with arms the size of steel beams, both of their faces mostly covered by darkness.

“What the fuck do you want?” She asked, coming up to her feet and stalking forward, as Roy came up beside her, gun drawn.

“We want the guns.”  The taller one said in a thick, Russian accent, and she swore under her breath when she realized that someone had compromised their run. Roy laughed, pointing the gun at them.

“You have thirty seconds to leave.” The two men grinned, simultaneously, before they jumped forward. Roy shot, twice, the gunshots echoing over the docks, magnifying the sound, as the other came for Felicity, who steeled herself, ready to reach out and swing. She missed her mark by an inch, giving him enough time to turn and swing at her, catching her in the cheek. She stumbled, but spread her feet to gain an even stance before she caught him under the jaw, kicking him in the groin for good measure at which point he dropped, groaning in pain. She looked around in time to see Roy pistol whip the taller man, who crumpled.

“Get in the car, we have to leave now.” Felicity said, running to the R8, and cranking it, waiting to make sure Roy got into the Mustang before they both tore out of the parking lot, not waiting around to see if the two men had reinforcements. Felicity winced as she poked at her cheek, knowing that it was going to bruise. There was a small cut; nothing bad enough to worry her, but she knew that Oliver would be concerned when she came home. Felicity pulled her phone out of her bag, calling John before she also pulled out her gun, taking it out of its holster and chambering a bullet, ready to have to return fire if necessary. She could see Roy in the car behind her, close enough that no one could get between them as they headed for Central City.

“Felicity? Is something wrong?” John asked, voice coming through tinged with worry and anxiety. She quickly switched lanes to pass a slow car, earning her a middle finger from the woman driving which she happily returned.

“Fucking Bratva showed up at the deal.” She said, pushing the R8 almost to its limit, desperate to be out of Starling as fast as possible. Roy fell behind slightly, and she slowed down, knowing he would never be able to keep up with her.

“What the fuck happened?!” He yelled, and in the background she could hear Barry asking questions, and by the way she was able to hear him more clearly, she knew John had put her on speakerphone.

“Two goons showed up and tried to kick the shit out of us right after Ronnie left. One of them probably can’t have kids and I think Roy concussed the other one.” John swore loudly, and she could practically hear the gears turning in both of their heads. Two unprovoked attacks in as many days meant that whatever was happening, needed to be dealt with sooner rather than later. They were running out of time before someone ended up dead.

“Go run the guns to the meeting point, and then go home. Don’t come to the garage. We’ll have a meeting tomorrow. I’ll talk to your dad.” Barry said, and she could hear John murmur his agreement in the background.

“I’m staying with Oliver, I’m driving his car right now.” She said, upshifting the R8 as she sped up, pushing past a line of semi-trucks as Roy followed, pushing his car as hard as he could.

“That’s fine, just make sure you have your gun.” John said, reassuringly, doing his best to downplay the fear that they were all feeling. In all reality, her staying with Oliver was probably her safest option, and as much as she loved her car she knew that having an unrecognizable vehicle was better. Everyone knew the Camaro was hers the second they saw it. Blending in was their best chance at avoiding bloodshed.

“Let us know when you’ve dropped the guns. I want you on the phone with us on your way back to Starling.” Felicity agreed, staying on the line with them until her and Roy reached the meeting point. They pulled into the rest area, parking in the far corner, directly beside where Wells and his crew had parked. Harrison Wells was a friend of Darkh’s, and the president of the Central City chapter. He opened the door of the R8 for Felicity, and she gave him a quick hug before filling him in.

“We can’t stay, so this has to be quick. The Bratva were onto us at the docks and we need to get back.” Wells nodded, signaling for his other members to unload the trunks of both cars, quickly, while Felicity and Wells talked, Roy at Felicity’s side with his hand on his gun, glancing around the empty parking lot.

“Weren’t you just attacked by the Triad?” He asked in a low voice, doing his best to keep the other members out of the conversation. If word got out that the mother charter was losing its grip on Starling, it would cause upheaval throughout the ranks. People would question if the Starling chapter was able to control its city, and its rivals.

“Yes. I don’t know what’s going on but we’re all going to have to be a lot more careful. We should leave, now.” Roy’s voice was tense and hard, causing Felicity to agree quickly. She gave Wells another hug before the two chapters separated, Felicity and Roy pulling out of the parking lot at top speeds. Felicity set up a three-way call between her, Roy, and John, wanting to be able to check up on Roy as they headed home.

Felicity didn’t go a mile per hour under one hundred, but by the time that she was pulling into Oliver’s garage it was almost three in the morning. She was exhausted, and her face was hot and swollen. She grabbed her gun, tucking it in the waistband of her pants before she called Oliver, asking him to send the elevator down for her. The security features they had in place made her feel slightly better; she didn’t like that by default she was putting Tommy in danger, just by being at their apartment, but she knew that it was the safest place for her. Staying at the club house would be somewhat safe, but at that point in the morning she knew everyone would have gone home. She texted her mom, letting her know that they’d successfully completed the run and that she was staying at Oliver’s when the elevator opened and she stepped into Oliver’s arms.

“Hey, what the hell happened?” He asked her, tilting her head back so that he could see her cheek. He brushed a finger over the cut, taking in the way that Felicity winced slightly as she pulled back, brushing some of her hair out of her face.

“It’s nothing, just some Russian dumbasses. One got a punch in.” Oliver narrowed his eyes, tilting her chin to look at it in a better light. He pulled her into the kitchen, forcing her to sit at one of the barstools before he grabbed an ice pack, wrapping it in a clean towel before gently pressing it to her cheek, lightly cupping her other cheek in his hand.

“Do I need to bandage the cut?” Oliver asked, gently removing the ice pack to get a better look at it and Felicity shrugged, taking the ice pack from Oliver and pressing it back onto her cheek, relishing the relief it gave her.

“I don’t know. I’ll have to look at it in better lighting than your overhead lights in your car.” He nodded, watching as she hopped off the barstool, heading through the apartment to his bedroom like she owned the place. It brought a smile to his face, seeing her so comfortable in his home. She placed her gun on the nightstand, stripping out of Oliver’s plaid as she walked into the bathroom, jumping up on the counter to poke at her cheek. Oliver leaned in the doorframe of the bathroom, watching her quietly until he moved to grab the first aid kit from the cabinet where he’d put it that morning, after using it to stitch her up last night. “Grab me one of the butterfly bandages?” She asked, and he nodded, grabbing a q-tip and the hydrogen as well. She made a face at the hydrogen and he chuckled, coming to stand in between her legs while she fidgeted on the counter.

“You just took out a Russian mobster and you’re freaking out over hydrogen peroxide?” She made a face at him, pulling her hair into a ponytail so that it wouldn’t get in his way as he started cleaning the cut. She couldn’t help but grin at the level of concentration that he was using to patch her up, his bottom lip tucked in between his teeth as he applied the bandage with careful fingers. He tilted her chin, checking the cut in the light as he gently ran his thumb over the area under the cut, the area that she knew was going to bruise. He frowned as he did it, and she knew that it bothered him that in two days he’d seen her with a bullet graze on her arm and a swollen, cut open cheek. She pulled his hand from her cheek, lacing her fingers with his as she pulled him out of the bathroom, pushing him onto the bed with a giggle as she grabbed her bag, running into the bathroom to change before he could come after her. She pulled her pajamas on, smiling when she saw that Oliver had thrown his shirt into her bag while she was away. She brushed her teeth and redid her ponytail, taking her contacts out before she exited the bathroom, shutting the light off as she stepped into the bedroom. She blindly stuck her hands out, feeling her way to the bed as Oliver chuckled. She climbed in next to him, curling against his side as she warmed herself, sticking her toes against his shins as he hissed.

“Jesus, Felicity.” She giggled, throwing an arm around his waist as he pressed a kiss to the top of her hair, pulling her close until they were both comfortable.

“Thanks for patching me up again.” She said quietly, already half asleep, lulled there by the quiet steady beat of his heart underneath her head. He mumbled an intelligible response as he fell asleep, Felicity’s warm body next to his, her arm around his waist and her legs wrapped around his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly can't even tell you how much I love the comments you guys leave. It makes me so happy to see people loving this story! Feel free to check out my tumblr, ollie-and-licity to leave any comments or just chat about the story (or anything really, come say hi).


	5. Chapter 5

Felicity shivered in the cold morning air, drawing her sweater closer around herself, wrapping her hands in the sleeves as she clutched a cup of coffee to her chest. She was standing on the balcony outside of Oliver and Tommy’s apartment, looking out at Starling in the early morning light. The cars were scarce, and the people even more so as the sun slowly lit the city, reflecting off of the glass buildings with a lazy twinkle. She heard movement behind her and she flinched, moving to reach for her gun, only to realize that she had left it in the bedroom with Oliver, but before she could panic the voice behind her spoke, the tension draining from her body as she recognized Tommy’s voice.

“It’s just me, I just need coffee.” Felicity turned to lean her back against the balcony railing as she watched Tommy pour himself a cup of coffee before wandering to stand next to her, facing the horizon as she looked over at him. Felicity and Oliver had been together for two weeks, almost all of which had been spent in each other’s company, with others like Tommy and Laurel, and the club members coming and going. Felicity had found that Tommy and Oliver reminded her a lot of her and John; there was no relation between them, but they were the closest they could be to siblings. They understood each other’s thoughts before they were spoken, and they were the perfect yin to the others yang. Never was one far from the other, and it made Felicity unendingly happy to see. Tommy had accepted Felicity immediately, doing his best to learn her quirks to make her most comfortable in their apartment that had quickly become her home.

Oliver had proven to Felicity that he could handle what her life threw at them, and by doing so he had quickly become an extension of the club, as much as Felicity still kept him at arms length from it. They balanced their nights between the club and their home and going out with Laurel and Tommy. Roy had grudgingly started to accept Oliver’s presence, mostly because Oliver and Barry as well as Oliver and John had immediately hit it off together. Ever since the Triad and the Bratva had come to the race and the gun run, the club had been laying low while Damien looked into what had caused both of the other clubs in Starling to initiate fights with them. The club had been spending its days doing honest work at the garage while they spent their nights organizing pool tournaments and playing drinking games.

Her life for the past two weeks had been a stark contrast to her life before Oliver. She hadn’t been shot at since the first night they had been together, she hadn’t spent her nights smuggling guns or cocaine to nearby cities, and she’d actually been around for someone to bring her breakfast in bed. Her life with Oliver had made her feel normal for the first time; it made her remember that at 21 she was supposed to be concerned with the newest clubs in town, not patching bullet holes in the dashboard of her car. Being with Oliver had also made her realize that the things that she’s done and the things that she had seen had shaped her into a very different person, far from normal, and it weighed on her in a way that it never had before. Oliver was so innocent, and so good, that it struck her often how little she deserved him. She had killed people with no remorse, she had torn families apart for the good of the club without a second thought, and she had subconsciously carried the guilt with her, buried underneath the surface until Oliver had brought it all bubbling up. He didn’t know details, and he didn’t ask but he could see the guilt that she carried and he did his best every day to ease it as much as he could.

“I didn’t mean to startle you.” Tommy said eventually, shifting so that he was leaning against the rail sideways, eyes on Felicity as she smiled slightly.

“It’s totally not your fault, I’m just jumpy.” Felicity’s anxiety stemmed from the place of worry about Oliver’s safety, and Tommy and Laurel’s by extension, due to the enemies she’d made through the club. Just because the club was laying low didn’t mean that things weren’t still dangerous. She took the responsibility for their safety very seriously.

“I can’t remember the last time I saw Ollie this happy.” He said quietly as he watched Felicity blush, taking a sip of her coffee in lieu of answering. “He cares about you more than anyone, Felicity, and I won’t even pretend to know what you go through with the club, but he will stand by you through anything, you just have to let him.”

“I’ve never felt about anyone what I feel for Oliver, and honestly? It scares the shit out of me. There’s so many what-if’s, there’s so much that could go wrong. I’ve…God, I’ve done a lot of shitty things, Tommy, things he doesn’t even know the half of.” Felicity sighed, chewing on her bottom lip with ferocity, surprised about how much she had told Tommy without even meaning to.

“What you’ve done, and who you were doesn’t change who you are today. Oliver wants to be with you, in spite of your past, because he see’s who you really are, and that girl? She’s amazing. Trust me.” Tommy gave Felicity a quick hug before he took her coffee and gently pushed her back into the apartment.

“Go back to bed, it’s too damn early.” Felicity smiled, pressing a quick kiss to Tommy’s cheek, a silent thank you for the words he’d given her before she padded back into Oliver’s bedroom and climbed back under the covers to curl against Oliver’s side, relishing the way that he pulled her closer against him, his stubble tickling against her neck as he nuzzled against her.

“Where’d you go?” He mumbled, his lips brushing her collar bone as he spoke, his voice low and lazy with sleep.

“Just wanted to see the sunrise. It was pretty.”

“Not as pretty as you.” She laughed, pressing a kiss to the top of his hair as he grinned, arm tightening around her waist.

“You’re a charmer, Mr. Queen.” He hummed his agreement, quickly biting at her neck as he rolled on top of her, sliding his tongue along her lips as she groaned, grabbing onto his shoulders as she bit his lower lip.

“Ah, God, fuck.” He hissed, his hips jerking against hers as she arched her back, pressing her hips against his as he groaned, latching his mouth back onto hers before they heard a knock on the door, causing Oliver to drop his forehead against Felicity’s as she swore.

“Oh my God, we need to find somewhere else to spend the night.” Felicity yelled as Oliver rolled off of her, ripping sweatpants on before he stalked over to the door, yanking it open to reveal Tommy, who was wearing a sheepish expression.

“Yeah, I know I just sent Felicity back in there but I thought you would want to know that Thea is on her way up right now.” Felicity squeaked from in bed, and Oliver glanced over his shoulder in time to see Felicity half fall out of the bed before she grabbed her bag off of the chair, running into the bathroom without a word.

“Thanks for the warning, man.” Oliver told Tommy before he shut the door, gently hitting his head off of it before he turned around to head to the bathroom, softly knocking on the door even as he heard Felicity swearing on the other side. “Babe?”

“Don’t you dare ‘babe’ me, Oliver; I’m flipping the fuck out right now!” Oliver struggled to keep from laughing, biting his lip as Felicity ripped the door open, her eyes frantic as they locked with Oliver’s. He had never even seen Felicity any sort of frazzled, let alone in full-blown panic mode.

“Felicity, honey, it’s just Thea.” Oliver said calmly, resting his hands on her shoulders as she threw the bag on the floor, moving out of Oliver’s grasp with a frustrated groan, pacing in front of the fireplace as Oliver watched, a hand over his mouth to hide his laughter. She’d thrown a pair of leggings on, still wearing the Henley that she wore to bed that she’d stolen from Oliver their first night together.

“It’s your sister! What if she hates me?” Felicity whined, coming back over to Oliver so she could rest her head against his collar bone, leaning further into his grasp when he wrapped his arms around her. It was uncharted territory for her. She wasn’t used to meeting people’s families, or even caring what other people thought of her, but she saw the look Oliver got when they talked about his younger sister; he loved her more than anything and she knew that if Thea didn’t like her, their relationship would suffer.

“She’s not going to hate you.” Thea had hated every single one of his girlfriends his entire life, but he knew that this would be different. Oliver had never been this happy, and he had never felt more at home with someone in his life.

Oliver could hear Thea’s voice from down the hall so he grabbed a shirt from his closet, pulling it on before he pulled Felicity out of the bedroom and down the hall, feeling her fingers grasp his tightly as they headed into the kitchen where Thea was sitting at one of the barstools, laughing with Tommy and Laurel as Tommy poured both of them coffee. Thea looked up to see her brother pulling who she knew to be Felicity into the kitchen. She’d heard nothing but good things about the girl from everyone, and based off of the two seconds that she’d seen them together so far, she could tell that they were head over heels for each other. Every movement one of them made was accompanied by a shift of the other person; like they were two stars in orbit around each other, gravitating to the other with an undeniable force that left everyone around them aware of the two of them. Thea immediately smiled at Felicity, standing up to walk over and pull her into a hug, which the other girl returned after initially freezing. She glanced at her brother, who was looking at the two of them with a small, content smile.

“I’ve heard a lot about you.” Thea said as she pulled back, pressing a quick kiss to Oliver’s cheek before she looked back at Felicity who had flushed a bright pink, lightly elbowing Oliver in the side.

“I hope only good things.” Felicity said, visibly relaxing the longer that she spoke to Thea. She hadn’t expected the girl to warm up to her as quickly as she did, because she knew how she was with Roy, and how protective she was about anyone getting close to him that she was weary of.

“What’re you doing here, Speedy?”

“I wanted to take you to lunch, but you weren’t answering your phone and I was passing by on my way to work.” She said as she plopped herself onto one of the barstools, resting her purse on the counter as she fixed Oliver with her best puppy dog eyes. It had gotten her everything she had ever wanted from him, and she knew that he was powerless against it, but a better idea sprang to mind.

“Why don’t you take Felicity instead? I have to head into work.” He said, resting his hands on Felicity’s shoulders as she tensed slightly, watching Thea’s face break into a grin. She nodded, accepting as Felicity tentatively smiled back. Never in her life had Felicity been nervous in any way; she’d made it through high school unscathed, everyone keeping out of her way in fear of what would happen to them. She had spent, until recently, every waking minute in the company of the club, forgoing the need to interact with many new people; even when she did she had never really cared what they thought. It wasn’t important to her, until suddenly it was. Oliver had changed her entire life in seconds when he’d scratched up her car and stumbled into something much bigger than the two of them, and she had lit up his world in the way that she shined, even through her past, and the things that she’d done. They needed each other, and they would burn the world around them to the ground if necessary, but it was something neither of them wanted.

Thea stayed long enough to finish her cup of coffee, chatting aimlessly with Tommy and Laurel as Felicity lightly dozed against the kitchen counter, held up by Oliver, who couldn’t miss the ecstatic looks Thea threw him over the rim of her coffee mug before she left. They’d grown up as close as could be with their age gap of 6 years, and the death of their father had brought them closer than ever before. They’d both gone through their own ways of coping; Oliver had slept his way through everyone he even remotely knew before moving on to anyone he could find, and Thea had chosen to drown herself in alcohol and drugs. It had taken the two of them to pull each other out of their dark places, and he couldn’t be prouder of the girl she had become.

Oliver managed to corral Felicity back into their bedroom after Thea had gone, almost resulting in bodily injury when she tripped over her own foot and almost took Oliver down with her. He dropped her into their bed, cracking a smile at her content hum before he dragged himself to the bathroom, showering and resigning himself to a day at the office that he would rather spend in bed with Felicity. He knew that her and Thea would be fine, in fact, he was mildly worried about what kind of shit the two of them would get themselves into. Thea never said no to anything and Felicity was the wildest person he’d ever met. He’d seen her down 13 shots of tequila in a contest with Roy, and he was convinced that he would end up taking her to the hospital, but she’d had no problems, and she’d won over two hundred dollars from Roy. By the time he got out of the shower Felicity had thrown on one of her sweaters and was sitting cross legged in front of his mirror, applying her usual red lipstick.

“You look hot in red.”

“You say that every time I wear this lipstick, Oliver.” She said with a grin, standing up to press a quick kiss to the underside of his jaw, her hands splayed across his abdomen. He hissed slightly when she lightly dug her nails into his abs, teeth nipping at his lower lip as he fisted his hand in her hair, pulling as she gave a low guttural groan. He was ready to throw her on the bed and end up decidedly late for work when her phone rang and she groaned in frustration. “Jesus fucking Christ, what?” She snapped, her hair an absolute mess. He had never seen lipstick that could handle as much as Felicity’s could, and it had become a personal quest to see how smudged he could get it at the end of every day. “You better be fucking joking that you just called me because you want a bro date with Oliver, Barry, I’m going to kill you when I see you! No I’m not on my period, you just cockblocked me!”

Oliver could hear Barry’s laughter through the phone, and couldn’t keep a smile off of his face, even as Felicity narrowed her eyes at him from across the room. She flipped him the bird as he broke into actual laughter, stepping into his closet and getting dressed, listening to the muted sound of Felicity’s tirade through the door.

“Bro date, huh?” He asked, opening the closet door to reveal a pouting Felicity, sitting on the edge of his bed.

“Barry wants you to stop by the clubhouse after work. I’ll meet you there after my lunch date with Thea. Which, by the way, has already turned into mani-pedi’s. She texted you and I got nosy, sorry.” She said, flushing slightly but Oliver shrugged, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“Thea loves a good mani-pedi.”

 

* * *

 

Felicity couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so comfortable. She’d quickly learned that Thea was a firecracker like no other, and she could tell that stubbornness ran in the family, because if there was anything that she knew about Thea, it was that she didn’t like the word no. She’d taken Felicity to lunch at an upscale restaurant in the middle of Starling, where they’d chatted and learned about each other and it was easy, and simple, and she had laughed until she cried at some of the stories and anecdotes Thea had to offer about Oliver. Lunch led to mani-pedi’s, where they stayed longer than they had meant to due to the offer of hot stone massages, and they’d left feeling relaxed and refreshed. Felicity had belated realized that Thea had missed out on the afternoon of work, to which she replied that it was exactly what she had needed. Thea, as she had explained, ran one of the most elite nightclubs in any of the surrounding cities. People lined up for hours in hopes of getting into the club, and even Felicity had to admit that she’d been intrigued by the news of it opening a few months ago. Thea dropped Felicity off at the garage, where Oliver’s car was already parked and waiting, and with plans to see each other again very soon, Thea headed back into Starling with a honk and a wave.

Felicity had just bent down to run her fingers over the tread in the R8’s tires, wanting to make sure that with the upcoming promise of snow, his car wouldn’t be a liability, when her phone blared Barry’s ringtone. “What?”

“How close are you?” His voice was high pitched and breathless, and she could hear Roy cackling in the background.

“Literally right outside. Why?”

“Aw, dude, we’re so fucked.” Felicity hung up, bursting through the garage into the club house with a multitude of slamming doors, only to see a gleeful Roy, a terrified Barry, and a resigned John circled around an Oliver who was covered in blood, and being stitched up by Cailtin.

“What the fuck did you do?!” Felicity shrieked, rounding on Barry first, who hid behind John with a high pitched whimper, cowering into the fetal position. Felicity’s initial reaction was panic, followed by fury.

“Initiation.” Roy said, shrugging when John cast him a glance that clearly said he didn’t want to go there.

“I’m going to initiate my foot up your ass! What the fuck, dude?”         

“Hey, listen,” Roy said, arguing his point around an Oliver who was staring openmouthed at Felicity, struggling to form any words. “I dared him, and told him that if he didn’t let me shoot him in the shoulder you’d think he was a pussy and he totally let me do it.”

“I’m going to shoot you next if you don’t get out of my sight in the next 30 seconds.” He took off with a cackle, leaving Barry on the floor behind John, who looked apologetically at Felicity before kicking out at Barry, nudging him in the same direction Roy had run. Barry took the hint, leaving John to deal Felicity.

“I had no idea what they were going to do. I was working, and the next thing I knew I heard a shot. I figured it was Triad, so I ran back there only to find Oliver on the ground, with Roy standing over him giggling. It was a clean shot, I don’t think he meant anything by it, Fel. It’s fucked up, but you know how Roy is. He wants to make sure anyone with the club is up to par.”

“I don’t want Oliver with the club.” She hissed, bending down next to Caitlin, who had studiously not said a word, her lips pursed into the thinnest line she’d ever seen. Oliver grinned at her, a dopey, drugged up look in his eyes as he tried to focus on Felicity.

“You’re pretty.” He whispered, and Felicity rolled her eyes, pressing a kiss to his forehead as he hummed, moving to rest his head against Felicity’s chest.

“I know you don’t want him in the club, I get it, but I don’t know how much longer he’s going to be okay with sitting at home on his ass waiting around for you. He knows you can take care of yourself but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t want to be there to have your back.” Felicity sighed, dragging her fingers through Oliver’s hair as Caitlin finished his stitches, handing Felicity all of the necessary medications with a small smile, a quiet ‘thank you’ falling from Felicity’s lips.

“Fel-Felilili-Felicility-Felicicity.”

“Don’t hurt yourself, Oliver.” She said laughing, helping Oliver stand up as John helped her get him out to his car and into the passenger seat.

“Go. I’ll talk to Roy.” Felicity nodded, pressing a kiss to John’s cheek as she climbed into the driver’s side, steering them towards home as Oliver struggled to form sentences in the seat next to her. He would be hurting later, but she was glad that at least for the moment, he was in good spirits.

She learned a new kind of struggle trying to hold Oliver up in the elevator, and by the time she’d dropped him into bed she was sweating. She pulled his shoes off before shucking his jeans off of his legs, feeling for a brief moment that she was dealing with a ridiculously oversized toddler, before she rearranged him against the pillow, laughing quietly to herself when she realized he’d already fallen asleep. She gently set a glass of water and his medication on his nightstand before she snuck into the bathroom, turning the shower on high, letting the water flow down her body. She thumped her head against the wall, letting out a breath that she didn’t realize she had been holding. She was going to skin Roy alive if it was the last thing she did, John’s opinion be damned. She loved Roy, and she always had; they were thick and thieves and next to nothing would stop her from keeping him out of harm’s way but he had always been territorial of the club and its members. It was uncommon for any of them to really date, because most settled for the company of one night stands, but she still remembered how much shit he had put Lyla through, although far less obvious than shooting her in the shoulder. Lyla herself had put a stop to it, coming from roots that were for more used to solving problems with a punch to the chin than talking it out. She knew Oliver, and she knew that the extent of his fighting came from drunken bar brawls with Tommy, so she knew that it wouldn’t be how he ended up solving things with Roy. She hoped that it meant Roy was done with his bullshit, because to her taking a bullet through the shoulder was a pretty obvious sign of commitment, but she couldn’t help questioning why Oliver had done it in the first place. She didn’t question how much he cared about her, or how invested he was in being with her because it was obvious, to the both of them, how much the other cared, and that had seemed enough for everyone, including his sister.

She finished in the shower, patting her hair as dry as she could get it before she changed into Oliver’s shirt and a pair of boyshorts before she went through her nighttime routine, yawning the entire time before she slipped into bed next to Oliver, checking his stitches before she tucked herself in next to him, falling asleep instantly.

 

“Goddamn son of a bitch motherfucker-“ Oliver cursed, jostling Felicity out of her sleep as he shifted, trying and failing to sit up as Felicity tried to understand what was happening.

“Oliver, fucking stop, you dillhole.” Felicity mumbled, leaning over him to grab his medicine and water, shoving at his good shoulder until he laid himself back down. He grudgingly took the pills, letting Felicity hold the cup to his lips as she straddled him, pinning him with a glare. “You want to explain to me why the hell you let Roy shoot you in the shoulder?”

Oliver flushed, shifting underneath Felicity to arrange himself in a more comfortable position, attempting to move his pillow up against the headboard until Felicity rolled her eyes, moving it for him. He relaxed against the pillow, slowly moving his hands to her hips as she raised her eyebrows at him. “Don’t look at me like that, okay, he said I had to do it or you’d think I was too chicken shit to be in the club and that everyone in the club has at least one scar.”

Felicity sighed, tracing absentminded patterns along his abdomen as she tried to piece her words together. “I don’t want you in the club any more than you already are, okay? It’s too dangerous, especially now with so much shit going on that we don’t understand. I don’t want you anywhere near it. I can’t handle it if something happens to you, especially if you’re going to pull crap like this, I mean, seriously? Roy isn’t king of the club, he’s a gigantic pain in my ass, just like you’re turning out to be.” She meant the last part jokingly, but she could tell that Oliver hadn’t taken her words well.

“I don’t care, Felicity, I can’t sit around and just wait for you to come home. I know that you could kick my ass three ways to Sunday, I’m well aware of it, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to be out there watching your back.”

“I hate John.” She whimpered to herself, glancing up at the ceiling as Oliver cast her a confused look.

“My name’s Oliver.”

“I know that,” she said, rolling her eyes, pressing a finger into his side, enjoying watching him squirm. “John said that you would say literally exactly what you just said. You guys kinda freak me out.”

“I’m going to be fine, Felicity. We have to compromise on this. I won’t lose you but I won’t watch you walk out of that door every night and just hope that you come back. I’ll feel better if I can at least be there.” Felicity leaned over, resting her head on Oliver’s chest, her arms bracketing his waist. He wrapped his good arm low around her hips, pulling her closer against him, realizing how small she was. Felicity was always larger than life, and excited and bad as hell, that he always forgot she was easily half a foot shorter than him when she wasn’t wearing heels.

“Fine. I won’t keep you out of club things if, and only if, you start training with John, Barry and I. Guns, hand to hand, everything. Okay?” Oliver murmured his agreement, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “And if you ever do anything stupid like that again, I’ll kill you myself.” Oliver chuckled, the sound vibrating through his chest under her ear. She could feel his breathing slowly evening out as the drugs started kicking in, numbing the pain in his shoulder. She gently climbed off of him, slipping out of the room to call Caitlin and thank her again for patching Oliver up.

 

* * *

 

 

Damien Darhk shifted papers around on his desk, looking through to find the order forms that had gone out in the past month. His eyes caught on one with a note in Felicity’s handwriting, for her back windshield that the Triad had shattered. He felt a mild pang of discomfort, guilt, at having had her so involved. It hadn’t been his intention to get her hurt but in the end it was necessary. He looked up as Donna walked by, stopping in the office long enough to say goodbye, with promises of seeing him later that night. He smiled, waiting ten minutes before he slid his cell phone out of his pocket, scrolling to the most recent number and hitting it. He raised the phone to his ear, murmuring that the club was empty before he hung up, not realizing that John was still in the back of the garage, working on his motorcycle. Minutes later tires screeched into the parking lot as John moved to the shadows, hiding in the doorway to their storage area, out of sight. Darhk folded his hands on the desk, leaning forward as his company walked in. Chien Na Wei stood in the front, flanked on either side by men who were on the small side, but deceptively strong. She wore a sinister grin on her features as she took a glance around the room before sitting in a chair across the desk from Darhk, leaning back as she crossed her arms.

“Well?” He asked, voice light and unassuming.

“It’s set. A week from now, at the race. We managed to get our hands on one of the Bratva vehicles. Everything will point to the Bratva, no one will suspect a thing.” Chien Na Wei wore a confident smile, her red painted lips standing out starkly against her pale skin.

“Good. Your men are aware of the target?”

“We are very aware of the target. There will be no mistakes.” Darhk nodded, unable to stop himself from grinning.

“Make it clean. I look forward to seeing your men in action.” Chien Na Wei laughed, low and dark before she stood, walking out of the garage with her men, their cars pealing out of the parking lot with a squeal, as Darhk himself stood, shutting off all of the lights and locking the garage before he got into his car, and drove home, where his wife greeted him with dinner.  

John pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, fingers hovering over Felicity’s speed dial. He didn’t know what to make of what he’d seen, between the Triad vehicles and Chien Na Wei herself, and a part of him didn’t want to believe. Diggle debated, waited almost 20 minutes before he took his motorcycle out of the side door, locking it with his own set of keys. He made up his mind to keep the information to himself, hoping that there was a simple explanation he could get if he noticed anything else out of place; he didn’t have near enough information to go to Felicity with such a serious accusation. Damien had been his friend, his mentor, for so many years that even now, after months of unexplainable disappearances, he didn’t want to believe the worst in him. He shoved everything out of his mind as he headed home, his last thought about it a silent prayer that he was wrong about what he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm baaaaaack! I hope you all had a merry holiday season and the start of a great new year! Leave your thoughts in the comments xoxo


	6. Chapter 6

“Felicity, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Oliver said, squinting out across the open pavilion. Christmas lights twinkled, his breath fogging in front of him as Felicity wrapped a hand in his scarf, pulling him down to her. She caught his lips in a kiss, pushing up on her tiptoes to get closer to him as he pulled her in with a hand on her back.

“Relax, it’s just a club race.” Oliver raised his eyebrow at her and she cringed, forgetting momentarily how the last club race had ended. She forced a smile, leaning around Oliver to grin at Thea who had tagged along. Since it was so close to Christmas, the club had decided that those who had outside family could bring them. Barry’s dad stood next to Barry’s car, running a hand proudly over the hood as he hooked his arm around his son’s shoulder. John had brought Lyla, and his brother Andy, who looked nearly identical to his brother, but stockier. Felicity had been more than willing to bring Thea, knowing that there were few places as safe as surrounded by at least 12 people who carried firearms. Thea shivered excitedly next to her brother, taking in her surroundings with wide eyes. The old factory district had been abandoned years ago, and for unorganized races it was the perfect spot to be. The pavilion in the center was perfect for them to gather; everyone who wasn’t racing in a group where they’d be able to see the majority of the race. Caitlin had brought a giant pot full of hot cider that she had passed out to everyone, trying her best to make sure no one froze from hypothermia.

“Felicity, come race me or are you too chicken shit?” Barry called from his GTR, having left the Porsche at home. Felicity wore a violent grin as she quickly kissed Oliver, climbing into her Camaro. Starting it with a roar, she pulled up next to Barry, who revved until flames shot out of the back of his exhaust. Oliver could hear Felicity’s loud laugh from her car, before Cisco counted them down to the start of the race. They took off, and Thea giggled next to him, wrapping her hands around Oliver’s arms.

“She’s literally the most amazing person I’ve ever seen, and so much cooler than you are holy shit.” Thea told him, causing John to burst into laughter as he walked up to them, clapping a hand on his shoulder.

“I think she’s right.” He said, and Oliver rolled his eyes, well aware of Lyla’s endearing smile at Thea, who winked at John as they heard the roar of Felicity’s Camaro across the pavilion. Oliver turned towards it, gravitating to it when he noticed the headlights headed towards Felicity too late. He swore, ripping his arm out of Thea’s grasp as the car slammed into Felicity’s passenger side, sending the car skidding. It hit a crack in the concrete and flipped, landing on the hood before its momentum carried it upright.

“FELICITY!” Oliver called as he ran to it, aware of John and Andy behind him as they all ran to the wreckage. Oliver went straight to the driver’s side, the air catching in his lungs as he saw that she was moving, ripping at her seatbelt with a groan. It came free with a snap, and Oliver reached through the shattered window to cradle her face in his hands. “Hey, hey, are you okay?” She nodded, coughing, the powder from the airbags clinging to her lungs as she struggled to breathe through the pain in her chest. Her ears were ringing, her lungs screaming, and everything in her body hurt. She pushed against the door weakly until Oliver tried to rip it open, unable to release it from the bent frame. Felicity shifted, pulling her right leg up and leveraging herself onto her center console, kicking out at the shattered windshield until it fell out of her car with a clang.

Andy pulled the windshield off of the hood of the Camaro, reaching a hand in to help Felicity clamber out of the car. She coughed, struggling to find her voice, and form a thought in the confusion; she could see the car that had hit her turned sideways, forgotten, across the pavilion as everyone focused on her, too distracted to notice the barrel of a silencer sticking out of the window.

Andy dropped onto the ground in front of car, onto the shattered windshield as John cried out. Lyla spun, emptying her clip in the direction of the car that was already fading into the distance. John had dropped next to Andy, trying to stem the bleeding in his brother’s chest as Caitlin dropped next to him, urging John to grab Andy and move him to the club house. Barry, the GTR still running in the background, had come to Oliver’s side, helping him pull Felicity onto the hood of the car. She slid off of it, away from Oliver and Barry, staggering into an alley before vomiting. Small, shaking hands pulled her hair out of her face, rubbing her back gently as Felicity wiped her mouth before leaning against the opposite wall of the alley, Thea in front of her.

“Felicity, Barry said we need to get out of here because the Camaro, it’s going to-“ Thea’s words were cut off by a loud explosion that sent both of them to the ground. She turned to her Camaro as best as she could, tears finally streaming down her face as the hysterics set in. Thea pulled her up, moving them around the flaming car with a determination. Oliver and Barry had gotten a hold of fire extinguishers, and were dousing the flames as best they could. Cisco had rolled the garage tow truck backwards to the Camaro, preparing it for when they would be able to drag the shell of her car onto it. For every race, for years, they’d always brought the tow truck. Usually someone’s tire blew, or a fender bender knocked a bumper off. They’d never seen anything like this.

“Get her to my car. Can you drive stick?” Barry asked Thea, as Oliver fought off the last flame. He tossed the fire extinguisher aside, coming up to Thea and Felicity, the latter still being held up by the younger.

“Are you okay?” Oliver asked Thea, scooping Felicity into his arms as gently as possible. Thea nodded, her hands, still shaking, the only sign of her weakened composure. Felicity whimpered from Oliver’s arms as she caught sight of the Camaro over Oliver’s shoulder, still smoking slightly as Cisco strapped it down.

“Listen, take the GTR. It’ll be cramped but you’ll get to the garage faster. Caitlin needs to see her, now.” Oliver nodded, taking the keys from Barry as he hopped into the tow truck with Cisco. Thea ripped the passenger seat forward, helping Oliver set her in the back seat. Her whole world was in and out of focus, and they could tell she had a concussion by the way she struggled to form sentences, and stay awake.

“Felicity, sweetie, you can’t sleep.” Oliver murmured gently, pushing the car as fast as he dared to the garage. Thea was half turned in her seat, a hand on Felicity’s knee as she involved her in constant conversation. “Thea…”

“I’m fine, Ollie,” she responded, her voice barely shaking. “I…I didn’t see what happened to John’s brother, I just saw glass and blood, and Felicity was puking, so Barry pushed me towards her and I just wanted to help her-“

“You did great, Thea,” he said gently, squeezing her knee. “I’m just…I’m sorry that I brought you, and that you saw all of this.”

“Felicity, honey, stay awake, okay, we’re almost there,” Thea murmured to Felicity quietly before she turned her attention back to Oliver. He checked the rear view every 30 seconds, eyes falling to Felicity in the back seat, who was still coughing up the airbag powder. “Don’t apologize. If this is Felicity’s life, as fucking crazy as it is then I want to know that. You guys are more serious about each other than anyone I’ve ever met and it’s only been 3 weeks. I’ve never seen you happier. This is her real world, I don’t want to be babied.”

Oliver stayed silent the rest of the way to the garage, sliding the GTR next to Roy’s Mustang. Roy had gotten everyone back to the garage in one piece, where Donna was waiting. By the time Oliver pulled Felicity out of the back, Donna was next to them, in hysterics as Felicity struggled to focus her attention on her mom.

“Mmm-“

“Shhhh, shh, you’re okay.” She whispered, clutching Felicity’s hand as Oliver carried her back to the club house. The entire club house was silent as they walked in, other than the sounds of Lyla crying. Caitlin was on the floor against the wall by the medical supplies, covered in blood with tear tracks down her face. Roy was by the bar, gulping whiskey from the bottle, before Oliver registered that John was crouched next to the couch, where a body lay covered by a sheet.

“Oliver…” Felicity whispered, her voice thick as she pushed against his chest. Oliver gently set her down, keeping his arms around her waist as she inched towards John, collapsing next to him as she cried into his neck. He turned, burying his face in her neck as he broke down, clinging to Felicity with a single minded need.

Thea shakily stepped up to the bar, pulling the bottle from Roy without a word and taking mouthfuls, a look of surprise momentarily crossing his features before he grabbed another bottle from underneath the bar, clinking it against Thea’s, who cast him a wry glance. Oliver, without Felicity in his arms, felt empty and out of place. He crossed the club house to kneel next to Caitlin, helping her up off of the floor. She wiped at her face, looking anywhere but in Oliver’s eyes. “I couldn’t save him.” She whispered, her lower lip wobbling as she glanced over at John, who was now surrounded by Barry and Cisco.

“It’s not your fault. We’re going to figure this out, and we’re going to make everything right.” He told her quietly, glancing back at Felicity. He could tell that she was in pain, more than the obvious concussion that she had and he knew that there wasn’t much he could do to help.

“Get her over here and I’ll take a look at her.” Caitlin said quietly, wiping at her face again as she cast Oliver a weak smile. He placed a hand on her shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile before he quietly walked over to Felicity, kneeling next to her.

“Babe, we need Caitlin to look at you and make sure everything’s okay.” Oliver whispered in her ear, his hand resting in the middle of her back. She nodded, hiccupping as she wiped at her face. He got her over to Caitlin, and let himself be shooed away. He crossed over to John, kneeling next to him and getting an arm around his waist before he hauled him up, to the bar where with Thea’s help he got him onto a stool. Roy immediately poured him a shot, which he downed quickly, without a glance at anyone else.

Oliver knew where John was, and he knew the thoughts going through his head. He’d had the hardest time of his life when his father had died; he’d lost the ability to see things for what they could be and had proceeded to only see the worst in things, in everything. He hadn’t had anyone to pull him out of it, between his grieving mother and his grieving sister they’d all been too lost in drowning their own sorrows to help the other and he wouldn’t let that cycle repeat itself. He was going to stand by John every second that he needed to, anything that he had to do to make the most out of the lessons he had learned through the loss of his father.

“Let me get you and Lyla home. I’ll stay here tonight, and in the morning we can start figuring things out. Okay?” Oliver said quietly, letting John lean against him as he nodded, slowly sliding off the stool as Thea went to grab Lyla. Oliver led John past Damien, who had come barreling into the room seconds before they left, and Oliver didn’t miss the way John tensed, flinching slightly as his friend moved towards Felicity, confusion radiating off of him. Oliver filed the information away in his mind, forcing himself to remember to confront John when he’d had enough time to understand everything that had happened.

When he got back, Oliver did his best to ensure that everyone got home, which included grudgingly letting his sister drive a drunken Roy home, with Felicity wolf whistling tiredly from the passenger seat of the GTR. Barry had insisted that they take his car to get home, after which Barry did his best to get Caitlin into the backseat of Cisco’s RX8. Donna and Damien had sent everyone home, promising to stay with Andy’s body until they could get the funeral planned in the morning. Oliver had tried to argue, but Donna had burst into tears and told him that she didn’t trust anyone else taking care of her daughter in her current state. Oliver himself had wanted to cry, and would have, had Felicity not stumbled up to him drugged up on painkillers and slurred that she needed a nap. He smiled down at her, gently scooping her into his arms and carrying her out to the car. She fell asleep on the ride home, drooling slightly onto the leather seats of the GTR, which caused Oliver to chuckle lightly for the first time since everything had happened.

He got her upstairs and into bed, waving off Tommy and Laurel’s questions with a promise to inform them in the morning, before he got Felicity to their room. He got her out of her clothes, eyes skimming the stitches that Caitlin had put on a particularly deep cut in Felicity’s left leg, a cut he hadn’t even noticed, before he pulled her borrowed Henley over her head, settling her against the pillows. He would worry about getting her into the shower in the morning, when he knew that she would be in far worse pain than she had been tonight. He knew that her heart shattered for John, and his family, and he knew that it would break her to see John upset, but he wouldn’t let her pretend that losing her car wouldn’t take a toll on her. He knew that Felicity wouldn’t want any attention on after what had happened, but that car had been her life. He’d never seen anyone care for a car the way she had cared for the Camaro, and if it was the last thing he did, he would make sure that her car was repaired.

He texted Thea, who was staying to make sure Roy would be okay and he tried to let his judgments about Roy go, especially since his attitude towards Oliver had greatly changed since the gunshot. He was grateful that he’d had Caitlin there to immediately handle patching him up, because it had gotten him out of extended hospital time. He was supposed to be wearing a sling, to keep the shoulder movement to a minimum but he’d taken it off for the race. He went to the bathroom, taking some of his pain meds, shifting his shoulder in pain as he waited for the meds to kick in. He knew he’d be sore in the morning but he shrugged it off, taking a hot shower to wash off the memory of that night as best he could.

* * *

 

Felicity shifted, grinding her teeth together as pain flared up through her back and shoulders, the stitches on her left leg pulling as she tried to roll over. Her head was pounding, but she slowly remembered the events that had transpired the night before. She had barely registered the headlights before they crashed into her, luckily hitting her passenger side. The next thing she remembered was Oliver yelling next to her as she ripped on the seatbelt, the only thought in her mind getting away from the powder from the airbags so she could breathe. She felt trapped, and she couldn’t wait for Oliver to get the door open, or clear the glass enough for her to crawl out of the window, so she’d used the adrenaline to kick the windshield out. She remembered Andy dropping, and she’d seen the blood but she hadn’t been able to comprehend anything that had happened; her only thought being that the pain in her head was enough to make her feel like she needed to hurl. She remembered Thea, and her hands pulling Felicity’s hair out of her face, and then the NOS in her car blowing up, ruining what was left of her car in seconds.

She finally managed to sit up, slowly trying to inch out of bed when she felt Oliver shift next to her, rolling out of bed and coming to stand in front of her before she had even been able to realize he had moved. He kneeled in front of her, his hands on her knees as he asked her how she felt.

“Like I got hit by a car.” She said with a cough, catching Oliver’s eye as he leveled her with a blank stare. “Too soon?” She asked, getting him to crack a small smile as she leaned down to kiss him. Every muscle in her body was tense, and every time she moved she felt like crying, but kissing Oliver made it all less horrible.

“Let’s get you in the shower, we need to get to the club, to handle things with-“ Oliver cut himself off, unsure of how much Felicity remembered, but she nodded, taking a deep breath.

“I…I remember, I remember John in the clubhouse, and Lyla…”

“We’re gonna get to the bottom of this. All of it. And after this is all said and done we’re going to fix your car.”

“Oliver,” she sighed, picking at her nail polish, “I don’t know if we can fix it. We’ll have to strip everything, to the frame, and then that might not even work I might need an entirely new frame-“

“Then we get a new frame. I don’t care what I have to do, we’re fixing this car. Okay?” She nodded, smiling as she leaned forward to kiss him again. He stood, pulling her off of the bed and giving her a second to take stock of all of her injuries before they slowly walked to the bathroom, her muscles slowly loosening as she took baby steps forward.

“This is the first car accident I’ve ever been in, and I have to say, it looks a lot less painful in the movies.” Oliver snorted, nudging the bathroom door open with his foot before he got Felicity in. He could hear her grind her teeth together as he helped her out of the Henley, letting her pull her bra and underwear off as he turned the water on. She gingerly stepped under the water, letting it massage her sore muscles as she slowly unwound. Her torso was covered in bruises, the darkest in the shape of her seatbelt. He knew they would only get worse and it made him cringe.

“Here, take these.” Oliver said, opening the shower door to hand her a few painkillers and a cup of water to take them before he took some himself.

“You fucked your shoulder up, didn’t you?” She asked, pausing in the middle of washing her hair to glare at Oliver. He waved her off, shutting the shower door on her glare as he turned to brush his teeth at the sink, laughing when he saw her middle finger over the top of the shower door.

“Relax, it’s just sore. No big deal.”

“The longer you fuck it up, the longer it’s going to take to heal.”

“You keep this in mind when I force you to relax because of your concussion.” He responded, heading out of the door back into his bedroom to change into jeans and a sweater. He could hear Felicity moving around in the shower, and his heart froze in his chest when she dropped her bottle of body wash, thinking that she had fallen. He’d burst into the bathroom, scaring her into dropping the bottle again as she swore. “I thought-“

“I’m fine, Oliver, breathe. I’m okay.” He nodded, letting his heart rate return to normal as he picked out a pair of jeans for Felicity, pairing it with her favorite black sweater. He had no idea what the protocol was for today, and as much as he kept telling people they were going to figure it out he wasn’t sure how exactly he was going to be able to handle everything. He had no basis to go off of, and he hoped more than anything that he would be able to live up to everything he had promised.

Felicity finished getting ready in a state of confusion, with time seeming to pass by quicker than she had anticipated. She’d been high before, multiple times, actually, with Barry whenever they were too overwhelmed with life, and having the concussion felt similar. Times passed in waves of too quickly and too slowly, throwing her off easily, and she didn’t think that the painkillers were helping matters.

They headed back to the garage in Barry’s GTR, by which time she realized that they were missing Thea.

“Where’s Thea?”

“She had to drive Roy home last night, he was pretty gone. She decided to stay there.” Felicity laughed at the look on Oliver’s face, quickly muffling it behind her hand. He raised his eyebrow at her, making her laugh harder only to wince when it jostled her sore muscles. She pouted at Oliver, who reached over to grab her hand, bringing it up to his lips.

“I don’t know if I can handle this.” Felicity said quietly, tightening her grip on Oliver’s fingers as he moved their joined hands to the gear shift, quickly shifting before returning their hands to his lap.

“This isn’t going to be easy, there isn’t any way around it, but we’ll get through it together. I’m here for you, every step of the way.”  She smiled, leaning against Oliver’s shoulder until he parked the GTR outside the garage, helping Felicity step out of the car before they headed inside. He could see that Felicity was in pain, even though she tried to hide it behind a mask. Oliver knew better than to point it out, especially once they were in the clubhouse and everyone dropped what they were doing to check on Felicity. She waved off all of the attention, bee lining for John, who was talking to a funeral coordinator. They had moved Andy’s body, the thought of which made her slightly nauseated. She could tell that John was detached, separated from his feelings in the only way any of them knew how to cope.

She wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning against him as he finalized the plans. Andy had always wanted to be cremated, which they would do tomorrow with no pomp and circumstance. She hadn’t known Andy well, but in the entire time that she’d known him he’d been reserved. He didn’t like attention, and he’d always been happier on the edges of groups, which made his death even more incomprehensible.

“You okay?” John asked her, leaning his head against hers as she sighed, looking up at him with squinted eyes, gauging his wellbeing.

“Are you okay?” He smiled sadly, pressing a kiss to the top of her head before lightly shrugging out of her grasp, turning her towards Lyla.

“She could use someone to talk to. I just need to talk to Oliver about something.” She nodded, confused, before she headed over to Lyla, resting an arm around her shoulders as they chatted.

“Hey, Oliver, can we talk quick?” Oliver nodded, clapping John on the shoulder as they walked out of the club house, moving to the back of the stock room. Oliver didn’t ask questions, letting John lead them until they were hidden behind stacks of tires, where John started pacing. Oliver crossed his arms, leaning against the back wall and waiting for John to process whatever was going through his head. “Listen, this is going to sound crazy, and I honestly don’t have enough proof for any of this but I think Damien killed Andy.” Oliver froze, mouth gaping open as he watched John. He cleared his throat, scratching at the back of his neck as he formulated a response, but John was quicker than he was.

“I know it sounds insane, but about a week ago I was here late, working on my bike, and I think that Damien thought the place was empty. Anyway, so a bunch of cars were pulling up and they were Triad so I hung back, made sure no one saw me. I have no idea what they were talking about, but there was no fighting, no yelling. Pretty sure Chien Na Wei smiled at Damien. There’s some shit going down, Oliver, and I don’t know who to turn to.” Oliver sighed, running a hand over his face as he looked over at John, conviction deep in his eyes. John wouldn’t have ever told Oliver anything if he wasn’t sure, because saying things about the leader of the club, going against everything to accuse the club was a death sentence.

“You can’t tell Felicity.” Oliver finally said, raising his hands in front of him to reassure John. “We’ll figure this out but you need to keep her out of it until we have absolute proof. Okay?” Diggle nodded, and after a minute of recollection he followed Oliver back into the clubhouse. Felicity came up to them immediately, visibly relaxing the second she got her hands on Oliver.

“Where the hell have you been? You missed dad, he told us that he found out who it was.” Oliver opened his mouth, meaning to respond, but Felicity cut him off. “It was the Bratva.”

Oliver schooled his features into a look of confusion, hoping that Felicity didn’t look too closely into it. John swore, and Oliver cast him a quick look, warning him to keep it together as Oliver steered Felicity away, herding her against a wall.

“Bratva? Why?” Felicity shrugged, eyes hardened to a cold dark blue in determination. Oliver recoiled slightly, backing away from the look on her face. Being in a car accident hadn’t kept her down for very long, she was back on her feet and rearing to go after anyone that she could get her hands on.

“I’m going to take the Bratva down one by one.” Oliver swallowed, glancing at John in fear, knowing that their need to find proof had just gotten that much more important.   
 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leave your thoughts in the comments (:


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys! life got a little crazy and i'm SO sorry that this took so long! thanks for bearing with me (:

 “Do you want to tell me how much money that thing was?” Oliver glanced over his shoulder, grinning down at John from the chair he was standing on.

“You don’t want to know. All that matters is that it’s going to work.” Oliver said, fitting the miniscule camera into the hole that he had drilled, its white cover blending into the wall surrounding it. Oliver hadn’t been able to sit still for a single moment since John had alerted him to the problems at hand. They couldn’t tell Felicity without proof; and getting proof wasn’t going to be an easy feat. They couldn’t let Damien know, in any certain way, what they knew. It was a dangerous line to walk, and Oliver was already feeling the pressure.

“Hey, man, I’m sorry for dragging you into this.” John said, pushing off of the doorframe as Oliver jumped down from the chair, bending down to scatter the dust leftover from when he’d drilled into the ceiling. It was late, the only time that they’d be able to get into Damien’s office without getting caught. They had done the whole operation with one flashlight that John had held from his location at the doorframe, acting as a guard even though they both knew that if anyone came in and found them, they’d have been dead.

“Don’t be. We’re going to end this.” Oliver clapped John on the shoulder as they headed out to their cars. Oliver’s R8 gleamed in the moonlight, while the car that John climbed into broke the quiet of the night with a loud roar. Oliver laughed, glancing over as John waggled his eyebrows at him. Oliver pealed out of the garage parking lot, John following him as they headed back to the apartment. Felicity had slowly been recovering, staying in and playing exactly by Caitlin’s orders. Oliver had been alternating with Laurel and Tommy, who had accepted that Oliver couldn’t tell them anything. Laurel had taken it upon herself to turn the apartment into Felicity’s personal spa, with Tommy footing the bill and playing waiter for the two of them. Thea stopped by most days, and Oliver would be lying if he said that seeing the people he cared about most, together and happy, didn’t make him the luckiest person on the planet.

Oliver and John parked in spots next to each other in the garage, each stepping out of their cars to lean against the bumper of the R8. Pulling his phone out of his pocket Oliver pressed Felicity’s speed dial, hearing her pick up moments later.

“You almost home?” She asked, her voice heavy and tired. Every bone in her body ached, and even though it had only been four days she couldn’t wait to get out of the apartment. She had loved spending time with Laurel, Tommy and Thea, more than she could express, but she felt like she was doing the club a disservice. She needed to get ahead of things; to start the path to retaliation that they all needed. She wouldn’t rest until the person responsible for Andy’s death was punished.

“I’m in the garage. Can you come down? I think something’s wrong with my car.” He could hear her sigh, mumbling under her breath as he heard her move around, Tommy and Laurel’s voices in the background as Oliver heard the elevator clanging.

“Why do you insist on damaging that car like do you want me to have a heart attack?”

“Just get down here.” He told her, hanging up the phone as he tucked it into his back pocket.

“She’s gonna love it man.” John said, and Oliver nodded, rubbing his hands together before he stepped forward, waiting directly in front of the elevator doors.

“Jesus! You are trying to give me a heart attack.” Felicity grumbled, having jumped backwards in surprise when the doors opened to reveal Oliver standing directly in front of her. He rolled his eyes, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to her lips before he took a step backwards, pulling her forwards with him.

“Close your eyes.”

“Is it that bad?!”

“Felicity.” She scrunched her eyes shut, lacing her fingers with Oliver’ s as he pulled her forward, around his car to the car that John had driven over. He had taken advantage of Tommy and Laurel watching Felicity for the day to drive and pick up the car that he had found for Felicity. Barry had helped him pick it out, and John had gone with him to look it over, and make sure that it was in the perfect condition. He didn’t want to replace her Camaro, but he knew that the rebuild would take time, and that Felicity would go stir crazy having to be chauffeured. “Open your eyes.”

“Holy fucking shit, Oliver! That’s a 1969 RS SS Camaro. That car’s over a hundred thousand dollars. Easily.” She screeched, hands fluttering over the car, tears in her eyes.

“104,900. But you were close. It’s yours. You’re gonna need something to drive while you rebuild the Camaro.” Felicity launched herself into Oliver’s arms, burying her face in his neck.

“I love you.” She whispered, tilting his face down to hers so she could kiss him, hearing a sniffle from behind them. Felicity pulled back, looking behind them at Laurel who was wiping at her eyes, Tommy glancing at her with a bemused expression.

“They’re just so cute.” Oliver burst into laughter, his arms wrapped around Felicity’s waist as she leaned against him, kissing the side of her head as she winked at Laurel.

“I love you, too, by the way.” He whispered, leaning his forehead against her temple.

“Alright, enough, get a room.” John said, waving his hands at them as he pulled his keys out of his pocket, dropping into his own car that he’d left in the garage that day, and pulling out with a wave. The rest of them headed upstairs, back to the apartment where they put on Netflix and spent the rest of the night crammed onto the couch.

By the time they retreated to their respective rooms, Felicity had become quiet and withdrawn, sending Oliver into a panic mode. He knew that buying a hundred thousand dollar car for the girl he’d been dating for about a month was slightly insane, but he hadn’t been able to help himself, and the look on her face had been worth it, but he wondered if she thought it was too much.

“Oliver, whatever you’re thinking, stop it.” She told him, stripping her shirt over her head as she headed towards the bed, picking up the sweater that she slept in and pulling it over her head before she shimmied out of her leggings and into the pair of boxers she’d stolen from him.

“You got really quiet.” He said, getting down to his boxers as he climbed into bed, watching her move around the room as she got ready for bed.

“It’s not about you, babe, or the car. I love it, and I love you, and I meant all of that. That’s not the problem.” Oliver leaned up on his elbows, glancing sideways towards the bathroom as she walked in to wash her face and brush her teeth.

“It’s about Andy, isn’t it.” It wasn’t a question; he had known for a while that this was coming and it was part of why he had spent so much on getting the camera to set up in Damien’s office.

“Yes, it is.” She told him, dropping into bed next to him and rolling onto her side, propped up on her elbow. “God, Oliver, none of this makes any fucking sense and I need to get information on it. I need to do something. I need to do what everyone else hasn’t done. Especially my father, which I don’t fucking understand.” Oliver reached out, rubbing Felicity’s arm as she huffed, picking at the sheets with a frown on her face. He took a breath, but then had to bite his tongue because the words on the tip of it he couldn’t say to Felicity. Oliver had lied before, to every girl he’d ever been with and it had been too easy. It hadn’t kept him awake at night, and he’d forget about it within minutes, but just withholding information from Felicity sat like a weight in his stomach. He couldn’t stand it, and he hoped with all of his heart that they’d get the information they needed.

“We’re going to figure this out, Felicity.” Oliver told her, kissing her forehead and pulling her against him, resting his chin on the top of her head. She sighed, hiding her face against his chest, the sound of her heartbeat lulling her closer to sleep.

“The only question is,” she whispered, when she knew that Oliver had already fallen asleep, “will you still love me after you see what I have to do?”

* * *

Damien stood at his desk, his hands braced on it as he waited for Chien Na Wei. The hit that he had ordered for them to carry out hadn’t been as successful as he’d hoped. He’d checked on Felicity multiple times, and he’d spent hours consoling Donna after the accident. The hit had been sloppy, and too many people had been hurt that didn’t need to be. Those kinds of mistakes led to questions, and that was something he couldn’t afford.

The Triad sauntered in, Chien Na Wei at the head as she quirked an eyebrow, crossing her arms over her chest as she came to a halt across the desk from him. “I thought meetings like this were dangerous.”

“They are. But it’s an unfortunate necessity, considering that you killed the wrong person.”

“He got in the way.” She hissed, slamming her hands on the desk as she leaned forward. “We went for John, we did, but his idiot brother moved at the last second.”

“You could’ve killed Felicity.”

“There’s always collateral. Do you want this or not? Make a decision.” Damien sighed, dropping into his chair as he locked eyes with Chien Na Wei.

“Getting into this business is necessary, and important. If we take over the Bratva’s human trafficking, we could be set for life.”

“Then deal with the damages that come from getting it.” She told him, stalking out of the office, pausing in the door frame. “And be well aware, that if you cross us, your world will burn.” Darhk raised an eyebrow, staying silent as they left, resting his fingers against his chin. Finally he stood, slamming his door shut before he walked back to his desk, picking up a picture of him, Donna and Felicity. Felicity was young, grinning up at her parents from where she was sitting on the hood of Donna’s first car; Damien and Donna were holding hands, leaning in towards each other with Felicity in the middle. Damien felt a small pang of guilt, deep in his soul and he quickly squashed it. His goal, when he had taken over the club from Felicity’s dad, had been to make the club bigger and better than it had ever been before. Felicity’s father had been weak, and content, and lacked the necessary motivation to push the club to bigger and better things. There wasn’t anyone in the club who was pressed for money, and they had more than enough to get by, but to Damien that wasn’t enough.

He set the picture back down, sticking his hands in his pockets and heading out, closing the garage behind him as he headed home to his wife, who remained blissfully unaware of her husbands plans.

* * *

 

“You’re a fucking bitch.” Felicity laughed, once, before she swung, clipping the younger man in the jaw as he groaned, leaning forward slightly as he spit blood onto the concrete. His teeth gleamed red as he laughed, resting his head against the chair he was tied to. Felicity had noticed him at her coffee shop, the Bratva symbol hidden on the edge of his bumper on the dark WRX parked directly in front of the windows. She mentally thanked Oliver for the new car, apologizing for what she was about to do next before she put on the charm, flirting with him the second he walked into the shop. It had been easy to get him out of the coffee shop and into her car, where she’d slammed his head off of the dashboard, knocking him out quickly. She grabbed Oliver’s tie from the backseat, flushing slightly as she remembered why it was back there, before she’d blindfolded the Bratva member and taken off for the garage.

Barry, his face set in anger, had hauled the guy out of the car with no issue, and carried him to the back storage room. Cisco and Caitlin had helped tie him down before Felicity had pulled the blindfold off and slapped him awake.

“Tell me what you know, about who killed Andy,” Felicity’s voice was low and even, her eyes flashing as she rested her hands on the arms of the chair, inches from his face. “or I’ll kill you.” He spit, flecks of red spreading across Felicity’s face. She swore, pulling back and wiping at her face with her sweater as Barry stepped forward, backhanding him harder than Felicity had punched him. Felicity ripped the gun out of her waistband, cocking it and pointing it directly between the man’s eyes. The laughter went from his face immediately, and he eyed Felicity nervously.

“Who ordered the fucking hit?” She asked, and for the first time she saw fear in his eyes. He struggled to sit up straighter, straining against the ropes holding him back.

“I don’t know. It wasn’t Bratva, at least it wasn’t ordered by our president.” Felicity glanced back at Barry, who looked just as disturbed as she did. When clubs went against each other, people generally claimed the hits they carried out against other people, no matter the cost. It took time and effort to find out, but there had never been a time they didn’t find answers. Felicity panicked, clicking the safety on before she lightly tossed the gun up, catching it by the barrel before she cracked him in the head with the butt of the gun.

“Shit, Barry, what the fuck do we do?” Felicity hissed as Cisco untied him, dropping him onto the ground. Felicity tucked her gun back in her waistband, running her hands through her hair in frustration. “If that kid fucking goes to the Bratva and says something, I’m going to get killed.”

“We could kill him.” Cisco suggested, but Barry shook his head.

“It would end up being just as bad, they’d figure out it was us. Felicity, sweetie, breathe; we’re going to figure everything out. We’ll take him to where you found him, drop him off and then we’ll come back here and talk to John and hopefully get more information. Just relax, okay?” She nodded, hands shaking slightly as she pulled her hair into a ponytail, helping Barry drop him into his car before they headed back to the coffee shop, both too lost in their thoughts to speak to the other. 

* * *

 

Oliver glanced at his phone, picking it up immediately when he saw John calling. “Listen, we have to review the footage tonight.” John said immediately.

“Hello to you, too.”

“No time for hellos, we have a problem.”

“What? Is Felicity okay?” Oliver asked, struggling to keep his voice low at his desk.

“She beat the shit out of a Bratva kid. He said that no one in their club ordered the hit against Andy. What Felicity did to him, means they could retaliate against her. She’s in danger.” Oliver swore profusely, slamming his hand on his desk hard enough to rattle his computer monitor.

“Let’s do it now. No one’s at the apartment, we can access it from there. I’ll be there in 5 minutes.” Oliver stood, calling out a hurried excuse to his assistant as he all but sprinted to the elevators, jamming the down button until the doors clicked open. He made it to his car in seconds, leaving a smell of burning rubber lingering in the air as he pulled out, fishtailing slightly as he went 100 the entire way to the apartment. John was waiting for him in the garage, and they went upstairs in silence, heading straight for the kitchen counter where Felicity had left her tablet. Oliver pulled up a private browser, logging in with shaking fingers, propping the tablet up with its case as he and John bent over it, scrolling through the grainy security clips.

“Wait, wait, wait, back up, look right there.” Oliver clicked the image, forcing it into wide screen before turning the volume all of the way up. “Motherfucker, you have got to be kidding me!” John yelled, as Oliver bent closer over the tablet, hands clenched on either side of the tablet.

“Did he seriously just say human trafficking?” Oliver asked, his voice shaking as he exited out of the program, closing the window and locking the tablet. John ran his hand over his face, hand idly resting on his gun in the waistband of his pants.

“We need to tell her now. We have proof.”

“She’s going to hate us.” Oliver said quietly, turning back to the kitchen counter as he sighed, bracing himself against the cold marble. John clapped a hand to his shoulder, waiting until Oliver turned around to speak.

“We have to find her, now.”

“Here goes nothing.”

* * *

 

When Oliver and John found her, she was in the bathroom cleaning specks of blood off of the butt of her gun, her face set into a mask. She knew that she should be concerned for her safety, but all she cared about was what her actions would do in regards to the club. Acting without the president’s approval, and having acted without cause, was a terrifying thought. She could be in deep shit, and she’d drag Oliver down with her.

“Felicity, we gotta talk.” She glanced up, freezing as she locked eyes with Oliver, caught in a wide eyed gaze. He reached for her immediately, and she spun, gun still clutched in her hand as he continued to walk towards her, his hands held up in front of him, almost in surrender. “Nothing like that, okay, I love you, breathe.” He grabbed the gun from her hands, tucking it into the waistband of his jeans as Felicity eyed him suspiciously.

“What’s going on?”

“John and I…we, uh, well John had a hunch, about the hit on Andy, and how it all went down. He said that he thought it was suspicious so I said that I would help him figure it out.” Felicity eyed the two of them, her hands involuntarily clenching to fists as she leaned backward against the sink. “I got a camera and we…we had reasons to put it in your dad’s office. John had stayed late, and he’d seen Triad vehicles come, and so we were concerned. So we watched the footage today, and the Triad came back, and they were talking about human trafficking, and the hit…and how they were supposed to take John out. We’re guessing that it was framed on the Bratva. It…it was my idea not to tell you before we had proof.”

“Shit! Motherfucker! You should’ve told me sooner!” Felicity exploded, launching off of the sink and closer to Oliver, who involuntarily stepped backwards. Felicity fisted her hands in her hair, crouching down to the ground as she acknowledged what she’d done. She’d acted without the full knowledge of the situation, and that was going to come back to haunt her.

“Felicity-“ Oliver said pleadingly, reaching for her as she stood.

“Don’t fucking touch me!” She yelled, pushing past him and John, running out to her car. She threw it into gear, almost stalling as she sped out of the parking lot, tire marks in her trail. The car stuttered slightly as she shifted, gears grinding as she ripped at the gear shift. She whimpered, her breath rushing out of her chest as she cried, moving at high speeds in her quest to put as much ground between her and Oliver. Her phone rang and she ignored it, driving straight to the apartment. In a daze she moved upstairs, grabbing anything of hers she could find and tossing it into her bag.

“Fel? What’s going on?” Laurel asked, concern written on her features as she stepped into the room. Felicity wiped at her face, choosing to not respond until Laurel grabbed at her arm, spinning her around. “Felicity. Talk to me.”

“Oliver. He fucking- he lied to me. About the club, and now people are going to get killed, and it’s going to be my fault. Mine! I have to get out of here, I can’t even look at him right now.” Laurel frowned, backing away from Felicity as she continued to throw her things into a bag.

“You can stay at my apartment.” She said quietly, watching the way Felicity faltered. “I’m almost never there. I don’t know why I even still have it, actually…Thea goes over there sometimes to hide, so she’d be the only person you run into, but trust me, she thinks Oliver’s a bigger idiot than any of us. I won’t even tell him where you are, and I won’t tell Tommy. You’ll be able to hide out for a while.” Felicity sniffled, leaning over her bag and crying as Laurel wrapped her up in her arms.

“Thank you.” Laurel smiled slightly, rubbing her hands up and down Felicity’s arms before she quietly padded into the room she shared with Tommy, fishing the keys out of her purse before she returned to Oliver’s room, handing them to Felicity.

“It’s down near the docks.”

“I’ll talk to you soon.” Felicity said croakily, slinging her bag over one shoulder before she walked out of the apartment, rearranging her features into a mask as she stepped into her car, slipping sunglasses over her eyes as she drove to the docks. She found the apartment easily enough, trying to hide her car in between two trucks on the street knowing that it was pointless; her car would never blend in. Walking into the apartment and finding Laurel’s room gave her a brief reprieve from the thoughts taking over her brain. She took in the decorations, and the furniture, so obviously Laurel that it made her crack a small smile. The spare bedroom was obviously Thea’s, with clothes strewn across the floor and a framed picture of her and Oliver on the dresser.

Felicity bit her lip, going back to Laurel’s room and changing into sweatpants and a tank top, immediately throwing her hair into a bun and raiding Laurel’s freezer for ice cream. She dropped onto the couch, giving herself a moment to categorize her feelings. She could kill Oliver for keeping the information from her, whether he thought he needed proof or not; her anger with John wasn’t much different. They’d both kept necessary information from her that kept her from being able to make decisions best for the club, something that was supposed to fall to her father. A flare of anger burst in her chest as she realized how close she had come to dying at the hand of her own father, and the fact that Andy was dead because of him. John was supposed to be dead because of him.

She angrily tossed the carton of ice cream onto the table in front of her, cracking her knuckles for something to do. She needed to act; she needed to hit something, anything, which would make her feel like she had any control. “Fuck!” She yelled, standing, moving to the bedroom to grab her phone, clicking it on and scrolling through the notifications. Oliver had called her 17 times, and left her increasingly hysterical text messages, but she couldn’t bring herself to answer him. She’d thought once that Oliver would never be the one to lie to her, or to keep anything from her, mostly due to the fact that she could read his bullshit from a mile away, yet he’d managed to keep something massive from her. Deep down she understood that they’d kept it from her to make sure that they had the evidence required to be able to back up their assumptions, but Felicity had made her own assumptions after her accident. Bratva or Triad, she had known that someone had sold them out; no one had known they were having the race, and more than that, no one had known that family would be there. Anyone targeting Andy wouldn’t have assumed that the first place he would be was a race for his brother’s club.

The rational part of her that understood the need they’d felt to keep it from her was overshadowed by the part of her that regretted the choices she’d made. She knew it had been rash to act against the Bratva so quickly, given that the Bratva tended to retaliate bigger and better without a second thought.

She heard footsteps outside, leading up to the front door of the apartment and she stilled, clenching her fists before she tiptoed to the left of the door, waiting with baited breath for the person to open the door. The second they did she kicked out, knocking the weapon out of their hand as the person screamed.

“What the ass, Felicity!” Thea yelled, drenched in iced coffee as she glared at Felicity who clapped her hands over her mouth.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry, I thought you were trying to kill me.” Thea raised one perfect eyebrow, flinging iced coffee off of her hand as she bent over to pick up the empty cup, heading towards the kitchen to drop it into the trash.

“You’re cleaning that shit up, dude.” Felicity grinned sheepishly, grabbing paper towels off of the counter as she cleaned the coffee off of the floor, thanking her lucky stars that the floor was hardwood. Thea came back into the room in leggings and a loose fitting t-shirt, dropping onto the couch and eyeing Felicity as she finished cleaning the floor before washing her hands at the kitchen sink.

“You weren’t surprised that I was here.” Felicity said, drying her hands off on a towel before she dropped onto the opposite end of the couch from Thea, wrapping her arms around her legs.

“No, but you obviously weren’t expecting me. I texted you.”

“My phone’s in the bedroom. Your brother is blowing it up.”

“Mind filling me in on what happened?” Thea asked gently, resting a hand on Felicity’s forearm, who sighed before telling Thea the entire story. “I don’t blame you for being mad at all,” Thea said, leaning back against the couch cushions as she eyed Felicity. “Just give yourself a little to calm down and everything will be back to normal. Minus the fact that your dad is an actual psychopath but I mean, you can handle that with everyone at your side.” Felicity chuckled, despite herself, and Thea’s answering grin made her feel lighter than she had in hours.

“When did you get so smart?” She asked, watching as Felicity laughed.

“Don’t tell Ollie.” They laughed, the sound fading as they sat next to each other in a comfortable silence.

“Do you hear that?” Felicity asked after a moment, a rhythmic creaking on the stairs drawing her attention as Thea stiffened, the look on Felicity’s face causing her to panic. “Go, get into one of the closets and stay there-“ The door was burst off of its hinges, and Felicity covered her face before she jumped off of the couch, landing in a fighting stance as Thea lunged over the back of the couch, moving towards the back of the apartment as Felicity jumped, kicking out at the people who’d burst into the apartment. She heard Russian, and spun, clipping the man behind her who’d tried to grab her as a distraction, moving to roundhouse kick him when he ducked, swiping her leg from underneath her. She dropped, grunting as she landed on the hard floor. She tried to roll, but there were too many of them; two grabbed her legs as one held her arms, the last coming up and kneeling by her head. She thrashed, trying to throw them off of her, but the one by her head pressed a rag over her nose, and slowly the world faded to black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you love it! comment your thoughts (:


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo there's a decent amount of torture in this. It's not super graphic (it could be much worse) but I figured that I would warn everyone anyway! leave your thoughts in the comments (:

Felicity woke slowly, and she groaned as she looked around. She could see dingy dark walls, exposed pipes and in a corner, Thea was curled up. She tried to sit up, but found herself strapped down. “Motherfucker.” She swore, tugging at the belts and squirming, but nothing she did mattered. Thea, hearing the racket, woke up and called out to Felicity, struggling to get to her, but she came up short. Her wrists were chained to one of the exposed pipes and she looked at Felicity, clearly on the verge of tears. “No, hey, listen, everything’s okay, I’m going to get us out of here.”

“How do you plan that?” A heavily accented voice asked her, and she tilted her head back to look at the Bratva members slowly streaming in. The one in front, the one who had spoken to her, was none other than the Bratva captain. 

“Listen, dickhole, we can do this the hard way or we can do this the easy way.” She could see the kid she’d kidnapped for information, leaning against the doorframe, pointedly avoiding eye contact as the Bratva captain moved closer. 

“You talk a lot for someone strapped to a table.” 

“I talk a lot all the time, asswipe, that’s not the point. Let me go.” Her head swung to the side as she was backhanded, the sound echoing in the silent basement. She bit her tongue to keep from making any noise as two other members came to stand on either side of her, and she tugged on her restraints again as one draped a cloth over her face. Before she could react, the other started pouring water onto her face. The water filled her nose, and her mouth, and she could feel it burning in her lungs as she tried to gasp for breath, but she couldn’t. She squirmed, pulling on the restraints harder and struggling to get free so she could breathe, and her head felt like it was going to explode when they stopped. She coughed, spewing water from her lungs, turning her head to the side and spitting it out. She coughed more, her body rejecting the amount of water she’d inhaled before she was finally able to take in a lungful of air. She could hear Thea sobbing in the corner, and she raised her voice to tell Thea that everything was  going to be okay before the now wet rag dropped onto her face again, and she spent another half a minute choking on water and fighting for air before they let her breathe again. “What do you want?” Felicity hissed, irritated at the way the water burned in her nose. 

“Retaliation.” She recognized the voice as the kid who she’d grabbed, before they subject her to the water torture again. 

“Fuck you.” Felicity spit, locking eyes with the teen as he stepped closer, grabbing a handful of her hair and ripping her head to the side. 

“Such a pretty face. It would be such a shame for something to happen to it.” He said quietly, slipping a knife out of his pocket and dragging the blade across her cheek, digging it in slightly until she felt it prick her skin, blood dripping slowly down her face. 

Felicity kept her face even, quirking an eyebrow as his face scrunched, clearly searching for a reaction out of Felicity. He had picked the wrong person to go after if he wanted a reaction; she was too stubborn to give in to anything that he wanted. Her thoughts drifted to Thea, and it strengthened her resolve. She wouldn’t let Thea have to listen to the sound of her being tortured. 

The boy lifted his hand, shifting his hand down until the knife point was over her shoulder. She tensed a second before he acted, driving the knife into her shoulder. She bit her lip until she tasted blood, a muffled scream working its way up out of her throat. 

Before she could react, the rag was thrown over her face again, water filling her mouth as she struggled, the knife sending lightning bolts of pain up and down her arm. 

“Enough. We do not want to kill her yet.” They untied Felicity’s restraints, picking her up and bodily throwing her next to Thea, chaining her ankle to a section of pipe. 

Thea crawled over to her, and she rubbed Felicity’s back as she coughed up water, her body fighting against her. Felicity sat, exhausted, but she didn’t let on to Thea how much pain she felt.  “Your shoulder-“ Thea said quietly, her hands shaking as she reached for Felicity, who shook her head. She was still coughing up water, lightly, her stomach heaving. 

“Leave it. I don’t have anything to bind it with. I’ll bleed out if we take it out.” Thea’s hands shook as she helped Felicity lay down on the floor, brushing Felicity’s hair out of her face. 

“Ollie will come soon. He has to.”

* * *

 

Two men came in a few hours later, neither missing the way that Thea shrunk back from them involuntarily. “The little one is scared.” The taller one said with a grin, kneeling in front of Thea, catching her chin in his hand even though she tried to pull away. “Don’t worry. We’ll kill the blonde before we start having fun with you.” Thea moved quickly, spitting at him before scooting backwards, placing herself in front of Felicity. “Bitch.”

“Call her that again and I’ll shove my foot so far up your ass-“ Felicity exploded from behind Thea, yanking against her cuffs and immediately regretting it. Her shoulder screamed in pain as she shifted, trying to get her hands on the knife still embedded in her shoulder so she could take it and stab either one of the men leering at her and Thea. 

“You talk too much.” The second man said, leaning down until his face was level with hers; she could smell the Russian vodka and cigars on his breath. “Maybe I should shut you up.” 

“Maybe I should cut your dick off, but we all don’t always get the things we want.” Felicity felt her head whip to the side with the force of the punch, and she could feel blood trickling down her face and she barred her teeth, launching herself forward to head-butt the man in front of her. When he fell backwards, she dropped onto her back, flinging her leg up in between his. He crumbled, and Felicity scrambled into a standing position, freezing when the man who had grabbed at Thea pulled her up into a chokehold. Felicity spit blood onto the floor, holding her hands out in front of her in a placating gesture. Felicity screwed her face up like she was about to cry, and when she spoke she made sure her voice was high pitched. “Please let her go, she’s not involved in this.” She took small, quiet steps forward until she was right in front of them, tears running down her face. “Please.” 

Before he could react, Felicity kicked her leg out in front of her, wrapping it around Thea’s leg and pushing at her knee until she buckled, falling onto the floor. Felicity reached both of her hands up, ripping the knife out of her shoulder and jamming it into the man’s shoulder, twisting it until he screamed. 

More men came running it at his scream, and Felicity whirled, her hands up in front of her in clenched fists, protecting her side and her face. The Bratva captain came in and looked around, a laugh coming out of his throat as he looked around at the destruction. Felicity’s shoulder was dripping copious amounts of blood, her cheek split, and her eye was slowly turning black. “Enough. You two, get out. Leave the two of them here. We’ll plan something special for them.” Felicity balked, and she made to move forward but Thea grabbed her by the ankle, shaking her head when Felicity looked down at her. The Bratva helped their men up, and lead them out of the cell. Felicity sunk to the ground next to Thea. 

“I need you to rip the bottom half off my shirt off. Shove some of it into the wound, and then wrap it. It’s the best we can do.” Felicity told Thea, watching as a blank look took over the younger girls face before she straightened, grabbing at a hole in Felicity’s shirt and pulling, ripping the shirt into strips that she bound Felicity’s shoulder with. “If I keep fighting them tomorrow, it should give us enough of a delay to be able to wait until the club finds us.” Felicity told Thea, leaning her head back against the wall behind her. Thea glanced up at her, eyes wide in her face.

“Let me do something.” She said earnestly, holding Felicity’s hand gently. 

“Just don’t draw any attention to yourself. Let me take the pain in this.” Thea furrowed her brows together but nodded, leaning against the wall next to Felicity and leaning her head on Felicity’s shoulder. 

“I’m really glad that Ollie met you. I’ve never had a sister, but now I do.”

* * *

 

Felicity woke the next morning to the Bratva roughly pulling her to her feet, unchaining her as Thea protested, and she’d used that opportunity to swing the chain in a circle, clipping the Bratva member nearest her and sending him to the ground. He grunted, and Thea started struggling against her chains as more members swarmed in. The one that had unchained her yanked the chains off the ground, wrapping them around her neck and pulling back. She choked, ripping at the metal cutting against her throat as she was dragged backwards to the table they’d chained her to, and she bucked, trying to throw her body weight forward and knock him off balance but he was too big; she could hear Thea screaming in the background, and with a loud crack she fell silent. Felicity screamed, turning to get her eyes on Thea who had been pistol whipped into unconsciousness.

Felicity gritted her teeth, complying as they attached her chains to a ring on the wall, her body hanging so that her feet barely touched the ground. She could feel her shoulder, still bleeding, screaming in pain as they wheeled in a hospital cart, topped with various torture instruments that gleamed in the low light of the dank basement. 

“Are you ready for round 2?” The Bratva captain asked, picking up a wicked looking knife, and stepping closer to Felicity. 

“Bring it on, ugly.” Felicity said with a sarcastic grin, biting her tongue when he quickly gouged a cut in her forearm. 

“Your lack of respect is astounding.” The captain said with a grim expression, digging another cut into her flesh, next to the first one but deeper. She could feel blood starting to drip down her arm, and her sore shoulder caused her entire arm to shake. 

“Daddy issues.” Felicity said with an equally grim expression, letting out a short laugh as her head cracked against the wall with the resounding force of a first to her cheek. As long as she kept the attention on herself, she’d save Thea from any unnecessary harm. She had full belief in Barry, and in Cisco, that they’d be able to track her down without any issues. Barry had an uncanny ability to piece things together that no one else could, and she had a sneaking suspicion that he’d installed a tracker into the pair of earrings he’d gotten her that she never took out. She hoped that she was right as a cut was drawn on her other arm, longer than any of the other ones, and so deep she was sure it had hit bone. She’d bleed out if she went untreated for too long, and it caused a mild sense of panic deep within her. 

“What would you prefer next? Burning? We can return to the water if you want. We’re going to take this nice and slow. Let the other girl watch as we kill you. And then we’ll kill her.” Felicity reared back and spit, flinging her leg out in front of her, colliding it straight into his groin. He dropped, and the bastard kid she’d kidnapped took his place, wrapping his hands around her throat and squeezing. He held her up, lifting her feet further off the ground as she choked and spluttered, the air in her lungs dangerously low as she started losing the edges of her vision, and it became harder to struggle. 

“Apologize.”

“Go fuck yourself.” Felicity choked out, eyes squeezing shut as he slammed her head back against the wall, and with one last glance at Thea she prayed that they would be able to get her out; that Barry would find her in time and that Thea would be able to tell Oliver how sorry she was, and how much she cared. She saw Oliver’s face over the shoulder of the man who would finally succeed in killing her, and she knew that she must be close to losing consciousness, that she was hallucinating Oliver rescuing her, and she smiled slightly.

* * *

 

Oliver burst into the room, heading straight for the first flash of blonde that he managed to find in the room; Felicity was being held in the air, by her throat, and her face had turned a horrible shade of purple. He could hear Barry, John and Roy behind him dropping people left and right behind him as he made his way to Felicity. The noise upstairs told him that Cisco and Caitlin were destroying the garage, making sure none of the cars would be able to follow them when they left.

Oliver ripped Felicity’s gun out of his waistband and froze, watching Felicity slowly stop struggling as she lost all of her ability to fight back, and in that second, without thinking, without worrying about the consequences of his actions, Oliver aimed the gun and pulled the trigger. 

He’d hit his mark, and the kid dropped, immediately letting Felicity go. Her full weight dropped, and with the air she had managed to gulp she let out a hysterical scream as she felt her shoulder dislocate. Oliver rushed forward, dropping next to Felicity, whose dropping weight had ripped her free from the wall. 

“Felicity? Felicity, fuck, shit, there’s so much blood.” He ripped his shirt off, tearing it into pieces to wrap around Felicity’s forearm as Roy moved behind them to free a still unconscious Thea. Felicity lay on the ground, unable to gather enough of her senses to move, to speak, to do anything other than look up at Oliver with tears streaming down her face. 

“Oliver-holy god tell me that’s not all her blood.” Barry dropped next to Oliver, brushing hair out of Felicity’s face as he looked her over. “We gotta go, now.” Oliver picked her up, and Barry quickly picked the locks on her shackles before they followed Roy, carrying an unconscious Thea, upstairs. John fell into step behind them, hands visibly shaking as he took in Felicity’s condition. 

Felicity could feel herself slip in and out of consciousness, drifting on an adrenaline high, unable to categorize her pain. She could feel the warmth of Oliver’s skin pressed against her side, and she could hear Caitlin’s high pitched voice leaning over her, tightening tourniquets and apologizing profusely before she had Oliver hold Felicity still as she popped Felicity’s shoulder back in place. 

The pain of having her shoulder popped back into place dragged Felicity back into the real world with a jarring crack. She groaned, her entire body’s pain drifting to the front of her mind as she took in her surroundings. She’d missed the entire ride back to the garage, and she wished that she could’ve had more time without feeling. 

Caitlin had her on their makeshift operating table, and she was hurriedly stitching Felicity’s skin shut. Oliver was hovering over her, and behind him she could see Thea on the couch, sobbing hysterically in Roy’s arms. “I’m going to give you a sedative, you need sleep. Okay?” Felicity nodded, feeling the sting of the needle and then the heavy weight of medicated sleep. 

The next time Felicity woke, she gave herself five minutes with her eyes closed, categorizing every pain she felt. Her throat burned, and she could tell by the way that it was hard for her to swallow that her throat was swollen. She could no longer feel the stitches in her arm, but the loss of blood had made her lightheaded and nauseated. Her shoulder stung lightly as she shifted, but it wasn’t any worse than it had been before; it had never fully recovered from the accident. She sighed, slowly opening her eyes as she took in the people standing around her. Oliver was asleep, his head resting on the bed, and she was shocked to realize she was in Oliver’s apartment. Thea was curled in bed next to her, her hand holding Felicity’s. Caitlin had just opened the door to stick her head in when she noticed that Felicity was awake. 

“Hey!” She said quietly, coming up to stand behind Oliver. “How’re you feeling.” 

“Okay.” Felicity said, but it came out as a hoarse whisper.

“It’s going to be a little hard for you to speak for a while; there’s a severe amount of bruising on your neck, but it looks like that’s going to be the only lasting damage, and that will heal in a few days.” 

Felicity could feel Thea shifting next to her and she took a deep breath, steeling herself for the difficulty that was going to be facing Oliver. She had realized, chained to the wall in the Bratva basement that she had never regretted a fight more in her life. She never wanted Oliver to think that she didn’t love him, that she had somehow changed her mind after everything they had been through in such a short time. She wondered too, if Oliver regretted taking a life to save her. She could remember the first time she’d killed, the blood running over her hands as the life drained out of the man’s eyes. No one ever forgot their first kill.

“’Licity?” Thea asked quietly, gently sitting up. Felicity smiled slightly, whispering a quiet hello to Thea who immediately, wrapped Felicity in a soft hug. “I was so worried. There was so much blood…” 

“I’m okay.” She whispered, cupping Thea’s cheek as Oliver sat up, blinking blearily as he took in his surroundings, his hair sticking up, pulling a smile out of Felicity.

“Felicity.” Her name dropped off his lips in a gasp, and he shifted forward his hands hovering over her as his eyes filled with tears. Thea helped Felicity sit up, and when she did she leaned forward into Oliver’s arms, burying her face in his shoulder. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer against him as he pressed his lips against her hair, her neck, her cheek, whispering her name over and over again. 

“I’m okay. I’m okay, I’m here.” Oliver leaned backwards, locking eyes with Felicity as he cupped her cheeks, resting his forehead against hers. 

“I thought I lost you. I thought I was too late.” His voice was quiet and broken, like he had aged a thousand years in the past 3 days. 

“I…you…you saved my life.” Oliver chuckled lightly, running his thumbs lightly over her cheekbones. 

“I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I love you, Felicity. I’ll do anything to keep you safe.” 

“You guys.” Thea wailed from behind them, squishing herself in between Oliver and Felicity with a sniffle. Felicity wrapped an arm around Thea’s shoulders, pressing a kiss to her temple as the younger girl smiled.

* * *

“So about the fight we had…” Oliver said, sitting at the edge of Felicity’s bed with his right leg underneath him as he watched Felicity cussing quietly under her breath as she lowered herself into bed, leaning against the headboard. Oliver had learned his lesson about helping Felicity get into bed earlier that morning. 

“I’m sorry for taking off…but I’m not sorry for being angry.” Felicity said quietly, picking at the bandage wrapped around her wrists; her skin had peeled off when she’d dropped, leaving her wrists skinned. 

“I don’t expect you to be. I don’t want you to be, you have every right to be angry. I shouldn’t have kept that kind of information from you. I nearly got you killed.”

“Don’t do that to yourself. I nearly got myself killed, I went running in without all of the information. We’re a team, right?” Felicity asked quietly, rewarded with one of Oliver’s biggest smiles. 

“We’re a team.” He said quietly, shifting until he was leaned against the headboard next to her. He had thought that in the days after rescuing Felicity that he’d be haunted by the man he’d killed; Oliver hadn’t even thought before he’d pulled the trigger,  but in between worrying about Felicity and consoling Thea, he hadn’t spared him a second thought. He’d expressed his concerns to John, that there was something wrong with him for never feeling an ounce of regret, and John had just glanced at him, a small smile playing at his features. 

“I remember every kill. Every single person that I’ve killed is filed away into a box, and there’s days where all I do is think about them. But the people who I killed to protect someone, those people are kind of blurred. I still think about them, and it stays with me, but that man isn’t going to haunt you as much as a different kill would. He was going to kill Felicity. You didn’t have a choice, man.” 

Sitting next to Felicity, in bed, he could feel her shift until her head was leaned against his shoulder, gently shifting around until she could pull the blanket over herself. As he pressed a kiss on the top of her head, he realized that there wasn’t anything that he wouldn’t do for Felicity. He’d burn the whole world down to save Felicity.

“Hey, Felicity, how’re you feeling?” John asked quietly, stepping into the room slowly. Felicity smiled, staying with her head leaned against Oliver’s shoulder. 

“I’m fine, John. Everything’s okay.” John nodded, taking up the spot on the bed where Oliver had previously been sitting. 

“I don’t know if we can really say that.” John said, rubbing a hand over his face. “The Bratva are up in arms. They’re pissed, and you know that they’re going to come after us. The only problem is how your dad is going to react. He never meant for all of us to get in the middle of this, because he wanted to take over the Bratva quickly and quietly without anyone knowing. Sucks for him that we do know.”

“That means that the Triad could easily come after us as well.” Felicity pointed out, wishing that she could just sleep; she’d never meant for anything to happen, and she could never have predicted that everything that was happening was caused by the man who she had thought was her father. 

“They will. But us knowing means that we have the ability to plan.” Oliver pointed out, gently running his fingers up and down Felicity’s arm. 

“We have to warn everyone. We have to fill everyone in. Barry, Caitlin, Cisco, Roy. They all need to be aware.” Felicity said, pushing herself into a sitting position so she could see everyone’s faces clearly. “If we get caught for this we’re all dead.” 

“Better dead having fought for something than waiting around with my head in the sand.” John told her, reaching out to push a stray piece of hair out of her face. “We all signed up for this. We can keep them safe. Hell, you think that any one of them is going to sit around waiting for your dad to accidentally get you killed? No way. We might have started this club with your dad, your real dad, but at the end of the day…everyone’s loyal to you. You wrapped everyone around your finger the moment they met you and we’ll go down fighting to keep you safe.” 

Felicity smiled, teary eyed, as she leaned into John’s arms, hugging him with her good arm. “We’ll tell them, and we’ll contact everyone else that we think will help us, and we’ll take down my dad, and the Triad, and we’ll fix this whole mess and remake the club on our terms.” Felicity said, reaching her bad arm out to Oliver, gently threading her fingers with his. “You in?”

“Oh, I’m in.” Oliver said with a laugh, squeezing Felicity’s fingers gently before Caitlin knocked on the door, a glass of water in her hands. 

“It’s time for some more pain meds, my love.” Caitlin told Felicity, handing her the glass and the two white pills, the slightest smile on her face. 

“Do you think you could get Barry, Roy and Cisco here? I need to talk to them when I wake up.” Caitlin nodded, ruffling Felicity’s hair gently before she took the empty glass of water and headed back out to the kitchen. 

“I’ll pull up the footage we have, so we can make sure to convince the four of them.” John said, following Caitlin out of the room. 

“Stay?” Felicity asked, turning to Oliver with her lower lip caught between her teeth. Oliver nodded, waiting for Felicity to arrange herself next to him before he wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in the crook of her neck. There had been too many times in their relationship that he had thought he’d lost her, but the worst had been the feeling he’d had when he’d seen Felicity laying on the floor in the Bratva headquarters, covered in her own blood. 

“I’ll always stay.”

* * *

 

By the time Felicity had rolled out of bed, showered, and let Oliver change her bandages, she’d gotten a hold on her nerves, and she was ready to talk to the rest of the club, and lay everything out on the table for them. Oliver kept a hand on her lower back, gently leading her to one of the barstools at the kitchen island. When she’d sat down and arranged herself, she took a large breath and glanced up at her friends, her family, that had arranged themselves around her. She could see Laurel and Tommy in the corner by the coffee machine, and if she found it weird she didn’t say anything. She glanced towards Caitlin and Cisco, both perched on the counter in between Tommy and Barry. Roy was sitting in a stool on the opposite side of the counter from Felicity, his arm around an exhausted Thea leaned against his side. John and Oliver took up the spaces on either side of her. Barry leaned up against the counter by the fridge, giving her a reassuring smile, and she suddenly remembered what she’d thought in the Bratva basement when she’d prayed that someone would find her and Thea.

She stood back up, walking over to Barry and looking him in the eyes, hands rested on his shoulders. “You put trackers in my earrings didn’t you?” He nodded slightly, a small smirk on his face, as Felicity wrapped him in a quick hug, pressing a kiss to his cheek with a whispered ‘thank you’ before she went back to her seat, sitting down and leaning against the counter. 

“There’s a lot I have to say, and a lot of it is going to be surprising, but I really need you guys to just wait until I’m done before you ask questions.” Barry shared a quick glance with Cisco, concern written all over his face but they both nodded, focusing on Felicity. Caitlin gave her a small nod, and she smiled back slightly before launching into her story. 

“My dad’s the reason that Andy is dead, he’s the reason I almost died. This is risky, and I won’t ask you guys to get involved unless you want to. You guys all have an out, if you need it.”She concluded, her mouth slightly dry. 

“So what’s the plan?” Caitlin asked, leaning forward slightly, her hands perched on either side of her on the counter. 

“I-what?” She had expected some pushback, she had expected that they would need to show them every piece of evidence they had, but looking around her she didn’t see a single person in that kitchen who looked like they doubted anything that she had said. They’d all perked up at Caitlin’s question, everyone looking to Felicity to lead them, to get them through a plan alive. 

“Come on, Liss, we’ve all known that there was something fishy going on. If you say that it’s your dad and you say that you have proof, then we all believe you and we’re going to do whatever you need us to.” Barry said from his spot, Cisco emphatically nodding his head next to Barry. Roy was watching her with a concentration she hadn’t seen at any point in high school, and while Thea looked like she was ready to fall asleep Felicity knew that she would want in on the plan. Tommy and Laurel, who had nothing to do with this life, were both quietly whispering, and in the silence she could hear Laurel mention her dad, and how helpful he would be in taking down Darkh when he found out what he had done. Her heart swelled, and when she looked up at John, he looked down at her, gave her a small smile, patted her shoulder, taking a seat next to her as Felicity pulled her laptop in front of her, beckoning everyone closer to her. 

“Okay, so here is how this is going to start.” They talked for hours, going back and forth about where the best place was to start retaliation against her father and the Bratva. Their base plan was to gather information; they still had the tech in her father’s office, and they had Chief Lance to help them. Laurel’s job was to talk to her dad, and fill him in on everything that had happened. Tommy and Oliver were going to pull money together to make sure that they could get enough weapons for everyone, as well as tune up everyone’s cars. Caitlin and Cisco were going to go to the Bratva; allying with them against a common enemy would be the only way to take down her father and the Triad. Barry, along with herself and John, were in charge of reaching out to the foreign chapters of the Riders to get in touch with anyone that could help them. She was going to take advantage of the relationships that she’d built, that she’d carefully maintained, and she was going to use them to take down her father, and the Triad. 

Felicity Smoak was staging a coup against her own family, and with the help of her friends she knew that she would win. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUYS. i apologize profusely that it has taken me this long to get this last chapter up. real life got so crazy that i didn't have time to even breathe the last year. finally, i had the spare time to finish this up. i hope you all love, and i hope to bring you guys another story in the future. lots of love, and i hope this isn't too late for you guys. <3

Driving through the Irish countryside, the windows down, sun filtering down through the open sunroof, it was almost possible for her to pretend that she was on vacation. That, back home, all that waited for her were a few cars for her to work on, a coffee date with Oliver and a snowball fight with Barry - but the reality was much different. What waited for her at home was a final showdown, the end of a long-standing battle that they had only just become aware of. Her team was scattered across the globe, from Central City to Belfast to Tokyo, all playing their own parts leading up the finale. 

She shifted lazily, cruising down the countryside as she thought about the possible outcomes. Best case scenario, her father would be dead, and no one else. Worst case, she would bury a friend. She would bury family. Everyone that had signed up to help her, they were putting their lives on the line. Placing themselves in front of a gun and playing Russian Roulette, hoping that in the end, it wouldn't be them that felt the sting of the bullet. 

It was Ronnie’s car beside her that pulled her out of her reverie, and she waved lightly as he pulled ahead of her, leading her to their club house. She hadn't called beforehand - it was too risky, with too many paper trails that could lead back to her - so she wasn't surprised to see him next to her. He would've been scoping her out, making sure that she wasn't a threat. She shut the car off, having parked it in the driveway beside his, and as she hoisted herself out of the car, the smile she wore was genuine. “Hey, Ronnie.” She said as she wrapped her arms around him, pressing a kiss to his cheek. 

“Fel, this is a huge surprise. Is everything alright?” She tilted her head from side to side, scrunching her nose slightly. What she was risking, what they all were by reaching out to the other chapters, was the chance that they would be turned down. That word would get back to her father before any of them were ready for it to.

“Long story. I need to talk to you, and the rest of the chapter. And I need you to trust me.” She had the proof on her flash drive, saved for the worst case scenario, because she needed the team to believe her ahead of time.

By the time they managed to gather, the nerves had started to settle in. She was sat in front of the chapter, looking into the eyes of those who she was depending on, hoping that they would back her like John was so sure they would. “I’m asking a lot of you.” As she spoke, her eyes were locked with Ronnie’s, pleading to the him, her friend. “I'm asking you to trust me, and I’m asking you to...do something dangerous. There will be no consequences for saying no.” By the way Ronnie leaned forward, she knew that she had captured his attention, and the concern on his face placated her. “My father, Damian, he - he’s working with the Triad.” There were sounds of outrage, and she held her hands up to stop them, pressing on. “He’s working with the Triad, to take over the Bratva human trafficking business. His hits have killed John’s brother, and almost me. The lives of my entire team are at risk, and the lives of innocent girls are as well. This has to be stopped, and we’re begging for your help. We can't do it alone. I’ve got people in Tokyo and Central City, and members reaching out to make amends with the Bratva. What Damian has done...that's not what this club was built on. That is beyond what we do, and I won't stand for it. I want this drawn back to what it once was.”

The room was quiet for a few minutes before Ronnie spoke, clearing his throat lightly as he leaned forward. “I’m with ya, Felicity. No questions asked, I don't need you to say anything else. I trust you.” There were nods all around the room, and she didn't see doubt or anger placed at her from anyone in the room, and she could feel her heart soar. It was a step in the right direction, and she couldn't help the grin that took over her features as she sat back. 

“Well, how soon can you all get on a plane?”

 

\----------------------

 

The lights in Tokyo were blinding. He had noticed it the moment he stepped foot into the main city at night, and he hadn't stopped being enamored by it. Tuned cars roared in the night as they sped past him, drawing his glance as he shouldered his way into a bar. It had all the marks of the Green Riders, showing off whose territory it was with no room  
for questioning. His eyes were drawn to the blonde behind the bar, and a large smile took over his face as he made his way towards her, his hands pulled out of his pockets. “Sara Lance.”

The younger Lance sister had joined the Green Riders early on, and sped off to Tokyo without a second thought. He had known the girl all her life, and to see the amazing, bad-ass woman that she had become filled him with a sense of pride. “John Diggle, what the fuck are you doing here?” Sara asked, coming around the bar to wrap her arms around her old friend. Tokyo had been good to her, and the Green Riders had given her an innate sense of purpose. 

“Came to talk. Need the rest of your crew here, where are they?” She snorted at the question, bending down to grab glasses from behind the bar, pouring them each a drink. 

“They're out hazing a new kid. I’ll call them in.” Twenty minutes later, the Tokyo chapter was assembled in front of him, Sara ensuring that they were all fed and with a drink in hand as she scared them all into listening to him. She was self-assured and commanded the attention of those in the room without trying.

“Felicity needs your help.” It was how he started the conversation, and the second he said the words he knew they had been the right ones. Sara had always cared for Felicity, and by the way that the rest of the club perked up, he had an idea that the rest felt the same way. It didn't surprise him - she was someone that everyone loved without questioning, without ever faltering. “Damian, he’s...he's gone off the rails. Far off track from what the club is supposed to be. What the club used to be. He carried out a hit that cost the life of my brother, when it was supposed to get me. He nearly cost Felicity her life.”

He had opened his mouth to continue speaking, when he was cut off by Sara rising to her feet, her arms crossed over her chest. “You don't have to say anything else. We’re going to pack up and be on the next flight to Starling.”

\------------------

Central City felt like home. He had spent more than enough time there to know the city like the back of his hand, and finding chapter headquarters was nothing to him. A quick greeting from Wells, a pat on the back and the quickest catching up that they could manage, and he was sitting in front of the rest of the chapter, a beer in his hand as he looked at all of them. People who were family, people who were, potentially, going to put their lives on the line. He drew a deep breath, trying to figure out where to start, when he was interrupted by Wells. 

“Barry. Spit it out. We’re all family here.” The words did exactly what Wells had wanted them to do. The nerves disappeared, and he set the beer he was holding on the edge of the pool table, leaning forward, hands clasped as he glanced to the men and women sitting in front of him. “Damien is working against us, with the Triad. His goal is to take over the human trafficking business.” He said the words quickly, and efficiently, watching the dark cloud of anger flash across the faces watching him. The honor that each of them felt at being a part of the Green Riders was being jeopardized by Damien, with his goal of pulling the Riders into a business that was despicable. It was more than any of them had ever signed up for. 

“What's the plan?” It was all that was asked, and Barry glanced at Jesse. One of the most terrifying women he had ever met, he would rather cut off his hand than go against her. “Felicity has one. She wants us all to meet in Starling, and we’ll go from there. We’ll end this.” He said with a slight shrug, giving them as much as he could, but he had said the right words. Wally leaned forward, a grin on his face as he looked at his companions. “If Felicity’s in charge of this, we’re in. Pack up, we ride out at dusk.”

Barry couldn't help the grin that crossed his face as each and every member stood, clapping each other on the back before they moved towards their belongings, doing just what Wally had said. Wells moved forward, coming to stand in front of Barry. “We’re all with you.”

\-------------------

Her hands shook as she wrapped her fingers around Cisco’s, doing her best to feign bravery. She knew how much rode on this, and she knew what they had done the last time that they had come to see the Bratva. Cisco squeezed her fingers, pulling her forward with him as they were lead to the captain. Anatoly sat at his desk, eyeing them across the wood as the two Green Riders sat down in the offered chairs. He had half a mind to kill them where they sat, but they had come waving a white flag, and he wanted to hear what they had to say for themselves. He’d buried a handful of his members only a few days before, and his anger simmered just underneath his skin, waiting to be unleashed. 

“We come with a peace offering.” Cisco started out, his voice sounding far more confident than he looked. He looked about as well as Caitlin felt, and he was slightly green around the edges. 

“A peace offering? You killed my men.” His voice was low and menacing, and Caitlin jumped in when she heard Cisco audibly swallow. 

“We’ve recently learned that our leader, Damien, is working with the Triad in an attempt to get a hold of your...your human trafficking business. He staged an attack on us with the help of the Triad, to make it look as though you had done it. We retaliated before we knew.” She spilled the story, feeling that if they waited any longer, they were going to find themselves looking at their own internal organs before they could finish telling the story. “We need your help to end the Triad, and end Damien. In return, the Triad’d business and out gun-running will be open for you to take over, as long as the human trafficking stops.” Felicity had been adamant on that point, and they were all in agreement on the matter. They wouldn't sit by and let innocent girls be forced into that life, not when they had the means to stop it. Anatoly leaned back, eyeing the two of them with a hungry gleam. He stood to gain more than he lost by giving up the girls, and he took only a few seconds longer to answer.

“You have a deal.”

\-----------------

“Holy shit.” She whispered quietly, Oliver the only person who heard her. She was looking out across the warehouse, taking in the mass amount of people, cars, and boxes, loaded down with weapons and ammunition, and no small amount of tactical gear that Oliver and Tommy had spent millions on. Every member of every chapter stood in front of her, all dressed in black, chattering among themselves. The air practically vibrated with excitement, and she felt it down to her bones. They were about to embark on something so much larger than she had ever anticipated it would be. There wasn't a single person who hadn't signed on to this crusade, and for the first time, she felt absolutely sure that they would win. The Triad’s numbers couldn't compare to the sheer magnitude of the force that they had mustered together, and she locked eyes with Anatoly from across the warehouse. The full chapter of the Bratva stood in front of her, with reinforcements that had crossed from across the world to exact revenge on those that had tried to tarnish their reputation. 

“You did this.” Oliver pointed out, glancing out across the space just like she had. Every single person standing around them was undeniably loyal to the blonde standing at his side, and he felt his chest swell with pride. She was strong, she was a leader, she was as kind as she could be cruel, and it showed. She was doing that needed to be done, going against her own father to save the lives of her crew, and hundreds of innocent girls. 

“I did this.” She echoed quietly, linking her fingers with his as John came towards them. He was dressed just like the rest of them were, and she could see the gleam of two pistols holstered underneath his leather jacket. He offered her a small smile, pressing her beloved gun into the palm of her hand, watching as she tucked it out of sight. 

“It’s time.” John told her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head as he moved to stand next to Barry and Cisco, Caitlin sandwiched next to them. 

Felicity cleared her throat and took a step forward, watching as the warehouse quieted and every face turned towards her, watching. Oliver stayed standing behind her, arms crossed as he watched her, an unmistakable expression of pride on his face. “It’s about that time. We’re going to converge on them at the Headquarters at the garage. That's where Damien is meeting the Triad tonight.” She hoped against hope that her mother wasn't there, that she wouldn't be taking inventory while her husband planned to betray all of them from  
a room over. Shaking the thought from her head, she continued. “Each and every one of you are my family, from the oldest of members, to the newest.” She looked from John to the Bratva, to those that had been crowned honorary members of the Green Riders, something that had been celebrated with too much tequila two nights prior. “This is the last ride. After this - well, things are probably going to be a little different.” She said with a chuckle, glancing back at Oliver before she turned to her audience again. “It's been a goddamn honor to ride with all of you. Let’s do this.” A cheer went up, straight to the rafters, shaking the warehouse with its sheer force. All around them, people crossed to their friends and loved ones, offering searing kisses and rib-cracking hugs, wishing good luck as they clambered into their vehicles. All around them, engines roared to life as the Starling chapter of the Green Riders congregated together, huddled together, arms around each other. 

“I fucking love you guys.” Everyone laughed, surprised at the language coming from Caitlin, and they all huddled closer together. Laurel and Tommy were here, arm in arm with Oliver and Felicity herself, who had snaked her arm around John. He held Lyla to him, who held Barry, Caitlin and Cisco directly next to him, like always. Thea had come with them, pressed against Roy’s side, her own pistol poking out from under her sweater. Felicity looked at all of them, feeling choked with emotion. 

“Everyone comes home tonight.” She ordered, looking at each face in turn. “Everyone.” She repeated, and they all nodded, squeezing each other tightly one more time before they broke apart. No one moved to their cars, instead moving one of the larger crates that had held the weapons, revealing a covered car. Oliver pushed past Felicity, grabbing one end of the tarp while Barry grabbed the other end, and with matching grins they pulled it off, exposing her Camaro. 

Entirely rebuilt, it looked like no harm had ever become of it, and she clapped her hands to her mouth, frozen in excitement and happiness. “Holy shit, you guys.” She could hear the tears in her voice and echoing laughter around her as she moved forward, pulling Oliver into a searing kiss.

“I can't take all the credit.” He mumbled, his face slightly pink as she pulled back. “Barry helped, a lot. But I’m now pretty handy with a tool set.” She laughed, shaking her head, trying to think of words that could express how thankful she was.

“Tell us later.” Barry said with a small smile, kissing Felicity’s cheek before they all slowly filtered to  
their own cars. Oliver had left the R8, and he climbed into the passenger seat of the Camaro, glancing out the window at this sister clambering into the red Mustang. 

“She’ll be okay. He’ll make sure of it.” Felicity said with a smile, resting a reassuring hand on Oliver’s leg. He nodded, squeezing her fingers before he pulled her in for a kiss, one that stole her breath away from her. 

“Let's do this.” He told her quietly when they pulled apart, and Felicity cranked the key, listening to the healthy purr of her car.

“Let's do this.” She pulled out in front, leading the long line of cars to the open front of the warehouse, watching as her crew, then Central City, then Belfast, then Tokyo slowly filtered in behind them, with the Bratva bringing up the rear. It was a sight to behold, and she couldn't help the manic grin that took over her face, one that was mirrored on Oliver’s face. 

“Ride out.” She yelled, a call that was echoed by Oliver, and the cars behind them, filtering slowly backward before the air was filled with the squealing of tires and the roar of engines as they drove to the garage, ready to exact vengeance.

\-----------

Felicity had been running with the Green Riders too long to believe that they would be able to get through their mission without anything going wrong. When she spotted the cars that surrounded them soon out of the warehouse, she was ready for it. Fingers tightened of the stick shift as she pushed the car to its limits, pulling far out ahead of everyone else, barely sparing Oliver a glance as she tucked them around a corner with a finesse he would never have, the tires squeaking as she did so. 

“Tell them to all split.” Oliver pulled the walkie talkie up to his mouth, relaying Felicity’s command, turning in his seat to watch those behind him follow the order. Her team split easily, quickly, everyone branching off down different roads. They’d lead the Triad in separate directions, and dispatch them before they moved towards the garage. Felicity kept her eyes on the road ahead of her, cars hurriedly pulling out of her way and she blasted past all of them, receiving a number of extended middle fingers in the process. There was one car left behind them, and if he squinted he swore he could tell it was Chien Na Wei. 

“Fel-”

“I know.” She said the words through gritted teeth, the anger flashing in her eyes. Oliver pulled his own gun out of its holster, keeping it pressed against his leg as Felicity twisted and turned their way to the garage, leaving Chien Na Wei lagging behind them. She may be good, but she wasn't Felicity’s level of good. She never would be. He felt pride swell in his chest again, and he thanked every god there was that he had hit her Camaro.

“Dispatched. Heading to the garage.” John’s voice filtered in through the walkie talkie, and she grinned as others speaking the same words returned the call over the radios. Her team was efficient, and quick, and moved like one functioning unit. But it wasn't just a team. It was a family; a collection of people so endeared towards each other that they would always be two steps behind each other, following wherever the others went. If one fell, everyone did. If one went out, they all would. 

The streets were filled with all of the chapters of the Green Riders, leading the Triad on a wild goose chase through streets that they knew as home. In the weeks since the foreign chapters had made their way to Starling, they had spent day in and day out roaming the city, familiarizing themselves with the city where they were going to make their last stand. Following their coup, the Riders weren't going to be the same. They would no longer be in the same businesses that they were now, but Felicity had never loved it for the business. She had loved it for the people.

By the time they got to the garage, both of them were covered in a light sheen of sweat, despite how cold the air was. The car was warm, filled with their two bodies and the weight of what they were about to do. Felicity glanced at Oliver, and the two of them pushed their doors open at the same time, John and Roy pulling in behind them, the passengers in their car stepping out in the same way. They could hear the far off sound of gunfire and revving engines, and she only had a few seconds to spare a thought towards the well-being of the rest of her club members before there was the sound of a door opening behind her. She spun, pulling her gun out of its holster as she did so, spinning to face the garage. Beside her, she saw Oliver do the same, and the ruffle of clothing and the clicking of guns behind her signaled that John, Lyla, Roy and Thea had followed suit. 

When her eyes locked onto her father, she almost lost her grip on her gun, her breath rushing out of her in a wounded gasp. “Mom.” Her mother was gagged, her hands bound in front of her as Damien held a gun to her head. “Let her go.” She hissed, her voice filled with a venom she didn't know she was capable of as she aimed her gun for Damien’s head. He smirked, sparing a quick glance towards Chien Na Wei as her car pulled in, blocking theirs off as she boosted herself out of her window, aiming a gun for Thea. She heard Oliver choke on his breath next to her, and he spun, aiming towards Chien Na Wei instead.

“Quite a standoff we have here.” Damien remarked coolly, like he was describing the weather to them. Felicity’s teeth ground together, and she heard John take a step forward behind her.

“How could you?” John asked, and the betrayal in his voice was painfully clear. Someone that he had regarded as a brother, a friend, had ultimately betrayed him, all of them, for the chance at money. “How could you do this to us? To Andy? To your daughter, and all those girls that are suffering.” Felicity had to clamp down on the shudder that wanted to crawl up her spine at the thought of those girls. Their lives, spent in dank cellars, cages, waiting for the moment they were sold off like cattle. Her grip tightened on her gun, and she locked eyes with her mother. Donna’s face was bruised and bloody, with tear tracks plain across her face, but her eyes held an angry glint in them as she glanced at her daughter. She could see immediately where she got her strength from, and it hardened her heart. 

“I did this for the club. So we could be better. That was always the goal - why do you think that I got rid of her damn father?” He gestured at Felicity absentmindedly, and she could see the way her mother’s eyes widened at the news. 

“You son of a fucking bitch.” She ground out, eyes swimming with tears as she watched her mother struggle to get away, anger completely renewed in her features. She could hear Chien Na Wei taunting from behind her, and without thinking she spun, aimed, and pulled the trigger.

Chien Na Wei dropped at the same time that she heard two other shots, a body colliding with hers and pushing her to the ground. She didn't catch herself, and she felt the blood start to trickle down her face, dripping into her eyes as she tried to push herself to her feet. Lyla was lifting herself off of Felicity, reaching for John, who stood, horror struck, staring at the body of Damien Darkh. Roy was helping a confused Thea up off of the ground, and she glanced behind her, looking for her mother, for Oliver, and she couldn't help the scream that crawled out of her. 

“Oliver!” She crawled over to him, hands pressed to his chest, gagging at the feeling of his blood spilling over her hands. “No - no no no, no, what happened?” She asked, looking up at John, who had collapsed to his knees next to her, trying to steady Oliver. 

“He aimed - for you - couldn't - watch it.” Oliver ground out, and she felt the tiniest wave of relief at the way the words came out. It hadn't hit a lung, but if Caitlin didn't get there immediately, he would bleed out.

“You're an idiot.” She said with a small laugh, pressing a kiss to his forehead, blinking blood and tears out of her eyes. “You're going to be fine, okay? You’re fine - Roy - Caitlin-” He waved her off, already calling her as a distraught Thea dropped next to Oliver’s free side, reaching for his hand.

“You're bleeding.” Thea told Felicity, wiping at the blonde’s forehead with her sleeve, and she could feel how Thea shook through her sweater. 

“You are, too.” Felicity pointed out grimly, the blood seeping through Thea’s upper sleeve, but she didn't dare to take her hands from Oliver’s chest, his pulse echoing in her own veins. 

“The bitch’s shot clipped me.” Both Queen siblings, shot, and for a moment she let out a disbelieving laugh.

“Your mom is going to hate me.” Oliver chuckled, wincing at the pain that it sent through his chest. He was pale, too pale, and his lips were blue. “Fuck.” Felicity mumbled, pressing her hands harder to the wound, bending over to lean closer to Oliver. “Hold on. You have to hold on, do you hear me?” He nodded, glancing up at John, who had shifted Oliver’s head into his lap. It could only  
have been a minute later, but it felt like an eternity as she watched the blood puddle up under Oliver, the shaking in her body reaching a fever pitch. She could only focus on Oliver, on his face, watching for more signs that she was about to lose him. The thought pushed her over the edge and she burst into sobs, her chest heaving. “Don't leave me.” 

“I won't.” His voice was weak, too weak, and the words were mumbled through numb lips. She opened her mouth to respond, to cuss him out, to yell at the world, but her words were cut off by Caitlin shoving her out of the way. Barry caught her, pulling her a safe distance away, wrapping her in his arms as she sobbed against his chest. She felt a gentle hand on her back, and her mother’s voice, and she turned to collapse against her, watching through blurred vision as they moved to carry Oliver to Caitlin’s makeshift ward. 

“I’m so sorry, Felicity.” She shook her head at her mom, pulling back to look at her. They were so much alike, and now, they looked more like it than ever. Both bruised and bloody, both crying heavily, blonde hair entirely in disarray. 

“Not your fault.” It was all that she could choke out, and Donna pulled her daughter to her one more time before she pulled back, looking at the members filtering in around them, staring between her, her daughter, the puddle of blood on the ground, and Damien and Chien Na Wei’s bodies. Sara whistled, drawing Wells’ attention, and together, Central City and Tokyo moved the bodies while Belfast worked on clearing the blood. Ronnie crossed to Felicity, grabbing her arms and pulling her into a hug, holding her against him.

“Let’s go, we have to get you cleaned up.”

\----------

She’d been banned from going near Caitlin, who had shut everyone out of her corner of the garage, leaving all of them to crowd around the bar. Felicity had a glass of whiskey pushed into her hands by Ronnie, who told her it would help with the shock. He was right - her hands had stopped shaking but the anxiety hadn't loosened in her chest. Oliver’s blood was still on her hands, and no matter how much she scrubbed, it wouldn't come off. She had waved off Sara’s offer to patch the cut on her forehead, but a few sips of whiskey later and Sara had man-handled her with the help of Jesse and Wally. 

Donna was fluttering from group to group, pushing what food she could on them, refilling drinks and keeping herself busy thanking the foreign chapters. Tommy and Laurel, shaken by the night’s events and the news of Oliver sat next to Felicity, their hands clasped, each with a hand on Felicity’s shoulders. She wished that she could offer them solace, but the smell of blood was still in her nostrils, and the thought made the whiskey sour in her stomach. 

Anatoly strolled into the garage an hour later, his mostly uninjured crew behind him. All together, most of the injuries had fallen on the Starling charter. Felicity stood, crossing to Anatoly and shaking his hand, thanking his crew in what Russian she could manage that wasn't cuss words. They smiled at her, and she had a feeling that it was the start of the two groups managing an alliance, far past what they had done tonight. 

Slowly, people started dropping. The adrenaline was wearing off, and bone deep exhaustion was taking over. Blankets were pulled from closets and the trunks of cars, heads pillowed on each other's shoulders or laps, everyone waiting together in solidarity for news about Oliver. She hadn't wanted to fall asleep, but the evening had been to much for her and she dozed fitfully against Barry’s shoulder, her head throbbing. 

“Fel, wake up.” He nudged her a few hours later, and she stood, eyes locking onto Caitlin picking her way across the room towards her. Her face was neutral as always, ever the doctor, but by the time she stood in front of Felicity she wore a small smile.

“He’s fine. It's going to be a bitch of a recovery, and if he doesn't listen this time, then there’s going to be hell to pay.” She threatened, casting a glance over her shoulder back to where Oliver was laying in the med bay. “But he’s okay. You can go sit with him. It’ll be a few hours still, but he’ll be okay.” She let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding, collapsing against Caitlin in a bone-crushing hug, expressing words she couldn't say before she stumbled over to the med bay. He was asleep, but most of his color had returned to his face, and his chest was cleaned of blood, patched and returned to its usual bullet-less state. Felicity dropped into the open chair, immediately bending to rest her head against Oliver’s shoulder, clutching his hand in hers. 

“I love you. Don't ever do that to me again.” She whispered in the silence, squeezing his fingers before she dropped into a heavy sleep. 

\-----------------

“Are you ready for this?” John asked her, a wide grin on his lips as he looked down at her. She nodded, a smile wide enough to split her lips on her face. She could hear her mother sniffling behind her, and she turned to smile at her, shaking her head at her mother’s antics. 

“Really, mom. If you keep crying, I’ll start, and then you’ll ruin Laurel’s hard work.” A muffled ‘don’t you dare!’ came from the next room, and she giggled, bending so that Thea could straighten her veil one more time. It had only been a few weeks after the Rider’s last big ride that Oliver had proposed, and with Thea’s quick planning and Laurel’s refusal to hear the word no, the wedding had come together in a little over a month. Everyone from Belfast and Tokyo had loaded themselves back onto planes, picked up from the airport by the Central City charter as they made their way back to Starling for an event that would hopefully include less bloodshed. The Bratva had been invited as well, and had happily supplied crates full of their Russian vodka. 

“I’m ready.” She said finally, turning back to John, letting him link their arms together as they headed towards the door. She absentmindedly rested her hand on her stomach, where the fabric of the dress was just starting to strain over a baby bump. 

“You did always have to do things in a big way, or not at all.” Donna said quietly, leaning over to give her daughter one last kiss on the cheek, wiping at her eyes. 

“I learned from the best.” She said with another smile, watching as Thea and Laurel headed down the aisle ahead of her, Roy and Tommy by their sides. John squeezed her arm lightly one more time before the two of them stepped forward themselves, walking down the aisle. She could see only happy, familiar faces in the crowd, and she bit her lip when she looked up to see Oliver, eyes sparkling with tears that he hadn't yet shed as he caught sight of her. Cisco stood behind him, having ordained himself online for the occasion, and as John handed Felicity over to her fiancé with a kiss on the top of her head, Cisco grinned at the two of them, before speaking over their heads.

“Friends and family, we are gathered here today to witness....” Oliver leaned forward at that moment, bending to whisper in her ear, before he pressed a kiss to her cheek. She laughed at his words, earning her a faux irritated look from Cisco, at which point she winked at him before turning back to Oliver, shaking her head.

“And to think that this all started with me hitting your car.”


End file.
